About the Program

• The 8^th Season of Sahaj Parav will be held at the Indian Museum Courtyard, Kolkata on 06^th February, 2026 & at the GD Birla Sabhaghar, Kolkata on 07^th & 08^th February, 2026 (with Tickets).

• The Culture-loving audiences of Eastern India await this celebration with great anticipation. As always, we aim to bring together musicians, artists and art practitioners from across the country to participate in this grand Carnival of Culture.

• The opening ceremony will be held on 6^th February featuring the Sahaj Parav Samman and Sahaj Jatra – a folk ensemble of Bengal that explores themes of Love, Devotion and the search for the Divine.

• On 7^th February, there will be specially curated performance by Akram Abdulfattah (Violinist from Palestine) on an Indo Arabian Instrumental Concert. The day will conclude with NIMAD – Under the Neem Tree, an ensemble performance featuring The Dhangars, Harbolas, Adivasis, Nath Baba, Kumawat Sisters & Chicli Dhol. This presentation reflects the lives, stories & cultural expressions of the regions of folk musicians from Madhya Pradesh.

• The final day will begin with a curated performance by MIHUN (the Pulse) – a Manipuri Folk Music & Dance Production by Thingom Brojen Kumar Singh & Group presenting the indigenous folk forms of Manipuri Traditions.

• The Festival will conclude with a Joint performance by two legendary Folk Maestros – Padma Shri Prahlad Singh Tipanya & Parvathy Baul. Prahladji will perform Kabir Bhajans (Doha) in traditional Malwa Folk Style of Madhya Pradesh and on the other hand, Parvathy Baul will join them for a conversational performance on Kabir & Baul Bhakti Sangeet.

About the Artists

• Padma Shri Prahlad Tipanya – is a Legendary Indian folk singer who performs Kabir bhajans in the Malwi folk style from Madhya Pradesh.He performs along with a group of  tambura, khartal, manjira,  dholak, harmonium, timki, and violin players. Prahlad Singh Tipaniya has visited UK, the United States & Pakistan as well as in India in different ‘Yatras’ named as “Amerika Me Kabir Yatra” and “Had-Anhad” and his music has been played on All India Radio stations in Indore, Bhopal, Jabalpur, Patna, Lucknow and Kanpur and also featured on Doordarshan. Tipanya has received several awards including Shikhar Samman (2005) by Madhya Pradesh Government, Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2007 and the Padma Shri in 2011. He also performed at the annual Sufi music festival, Ruhaniyat and also countless Kabir festivals. He also runs a program named “Sadguru Kabir Shodh Sansthan”.

• Parvathy Baul – is a Baul folk singer, musician and storyteller from Bengal and one of the leading Baul musicians in India. Trained under Baul gurus, Sanatan Das Baul, Shashanko Goshai Baul in Bengal, she has been performing both in India and other countries since 1995.

• Akram Abdulfattah – is a Palestinian-American violinist, composer, and producer whose music bridges cultures and traditions. Born in New Jersey and raised in Galilee, he was immersed in Palestinian music from childhood, later graduating with excellence from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and founding the award-winning quartet Awan. Influenced by Arabic classical masters and shaped by collaborations with Simon Shaheen, Kamil Shajrawi, Omar Faruk Tekbilek, and Bassam Saba, Akram’s sound blends Palestinian, Arab, and Indian traditions. His cross-cultural albums have earned international recognition, including BBC 6’s “Beat of the Week” and a 4-star review in Songlines Magazine.

• Nimad is a critically acclaimed World music ensemble that brings generations old folk music and traditions from the Nimad region in Madhya Pradesh (central India), into the now, through masterful cinematic arrangements, combining influences from around the world and packaging the show in a live documentary style audio visual experience that features the folk musicians, a horn section & a qawwal group. Through the course of the show, the audience is taken on a journey into the history of the folk musicians, the tradition of their crafts they are preserving and how they blend in this age of modernity through its 2 creators – Jayesh Malani and Bharat Chandore.

The highlight of the live show, Directed by Warren De Sylva and visually enriched by the vision of Keerthi Raju, is the live visuals and projection mapping, which include stunning synced visuals and particle animations that complement each track. By using scrims and immersive visuals, we’ve created a layered, cinematic aesthetic, blending tradition with modernity. The visuals are more than just a backdrop; they tell the story of the music’s origins, making the entire performance feel like a living, breathing documentary.

• MIHUN (The Pulse) – A Manipuri Folk Music and Dance Production by Thingom Brojen Kumar Singh & Group showcasing indigenous folk forms of the Manipuri Traditions.