 Good evening everyone, I hope everyone is safe and sound at home right now. As we all know these are kind of trying times and challenging times and you know we wish we could all be together and but I think for now virtual rooms like this are how we're all going to be meeting. So actually tonight, this project Raga Makam was supposed to be playing at the Rubin Museum of Art. And unfortunately for all these circumstances we weren't able to do it but we figured the show must go on online. So, you know we decided that we're going to do this and we're really thankful to the culture hub for having us and for setting this platform up and it's something you know, it's a little experimental we haven't done this before. And the technology is not so incredible that we can all play simultaneously. We're not yet the culture hub is really together a beautiful platform for us to play together. And we're going to take turns we're going to go one by one and we're going to kind of pass the baton and and go through these two musical traditions. This project is kind of exploring the crossroads of Indian Cascaraga and Arabic Makam and it's a much larger band. We're going to have 10 or 11 at the Rubin Museum but tonight we are down to four and it'll be myself and Amir El Safar Jay Gandhi and George Zedaya. And we're really looking forward to playing for you. We hope you're all well at home and sit back and enjoy and I'll pass the baton over to Amir. And hello everybody. Good evening from my living room to yours from our living rooms to yours. Yeah, tough times living in lockdown and not being able to perform and being able to share music, the way that we all have done all of our lives and that humanity has done since the very beginning. I do believe that there are ways of still communicating and still staying in close proximity through sound. And this is a crude means of doing it through the internet. But our sound and vibrations are happening in this moment right now. And we're all playing together in various locations and sharing with you and all of your locations throughout the world. It's truly a joy to share with you this evening. And we hope that the fidelity and that the technology will be able to serve well enough to so that the message can be delivered and the sound can come through. Thank you everyone. Thank you everybody. Thank you everyone. Yeah, please I'm here. Go ahead. Thank you. Yeah, but thanks everyone for tuning in. This was a wonderful experience to play with these guys it's been so long since we all met. And it's such a nice experience and some were grateful to even have this. There are challenges of hearing each other and, you know, and being able to interact and we wanted to have the human element be a part of our music today so it was very important to us to make sure that we played together and not just separately, as we all are today so Before I forget, I just also want to thank some some folks that also helped make this happen. Of course, Culture Hub and want to thank the India Center Foundation also and Raul Bhavnani for their partners with Brooklyn Raga Massive and Lincoln Center for putting this project and getting us all together and helping kind of, you know, get some shows on the map. So we like to thank India Center, Mira, Google, David Elm Bogan, they're all watching I'm sure hey guys. Anybody else want to say anything. Yeah, thank you so much for having the opportunity to play a game together it's great to be able to hear each other and interact again I mean, since we can't do it in real life anymore. Right. For the time being, hopefully. It's really pleasant to me that I was able to play again, you know, it's been like two weeks since I've been shot at home and, you know, just playing by myself with great musicians like these guys. Thank you. I don't thank you and Jay, thank you so much. And the technical. Thank you so much. India Foundation is so much for having us and for trying this. Yes, to reach out to people without being on stage in the concert hall for the time being. Yeah. Yeah, thank you everybody and we're going to keep this up. Hopefully we'll do more performances like this. This week we were supposed to play three times together so right now with larger groups so right now we're making up for it with the four of us. And I think it's the beginning of something I actually, despite all the latencies and delays and sound issues and I really feel like I'm playing with with Arun and Jay and George in a way that I wouldn't, if we weren't, it just agreeing to be in the same space together. And I think that we're all connected. And this experience, just the rehearsals and this performance. I'm making it evident to me that we really are connected and sort of a, not just what we're doing in our, what we're able to hear and see but also just in our very existence at every moment so we're playing together through this internet connection but I think we're also playing together in a larger sense through through the ether or whatever you want to refer to it as but and that means that we're not only connected with each other as musicians but connected with all of you at home watching this with all the other people on the planet right now those who are suffering directly from the coronavirus and those were waiting us out and all of us are in the same boat every every place on the planet right now so but we really are connected and our hearts are connected throughout so let's let's let that connection grow. Yes, thank you so much, everybody. And it's, it's beautiful to play with all you guys and it's, you know, like Amir said, we're all hearing a little different delays and stuff but sometimes the spirit gets even if it's for a little second. If it transmits, it's, it's all worth it so. So, um, so stay connected, everybody, lots of love and hopefully we keep on doing this. All right. Yeah. So, thank you everyone.