Indian music is poised to make global cultural history as Carnegie Hall announces its first-ever Indian Music Festival, set to launch in 2027. Conceived as an annual three-day event, the festival will embed Hindustani and Carnatic classical traditions alongside film, folk, Sufi, indie and contemporary crossover sounds marking a structural shift in how Indian music is positioned within one of the world’s most influential music institutions.

At the heart of the initiative is Indo-American philanthropist, vocalist and composer Ila Paliwal, whose $10 million endowment ensures the festival’s permanence. While Carnegie Hall has hosted Indian legends before from Ravi Shankar to Zakir Hussain and L Subrahmanyam, Paliwal says those appearances, though historic, were fleeting.