Darbar Academy: ragas for all

Along with the drumming of west Africa or the gamelan of Indonesia, the music of India has been on school curriculums in some shape or form for decades. One Leicestershire-based organisation, however, is on a mission to increase its prominence, using technology to bring a crash course in Indian classical music to schools across the UK. In an innovative way, the Darbar Academy is making non-western music accessible to 7- to 15-year-olds.

The Darbar Academy was created by the Darbar Arts Culture and Heritage Trust, an organisation you may remember from its appearance at the 2024 Music and Drama Education Expo. Primarily running Indian classical music festivals in venues such as the Barbican, the team felt inspired to branch out into education and bring this music to the classroom in an affordable way. Acknowledging that teachers lacked time and resources, the Academy created simple, structured videos for teachers – specialist and non-specialist alike – to provide Indian classical music lessons in an interactive way, using keyboards or tablets. The programme, which gives everyone a chance to get to grips with the basics, is suitable for KS2, 3 and 4, and forms a starting point for teaching ragas, talas and the Indian classical style. Crucially, these are taught alongside western diatonic chords, creating a true musical fusion.