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[MUSIC PLAYING] CHRIS ROBERTS: In the office of Pangea World Theater in Minneapolis, students of the tabla, the traditional drum and signature beat of Indian music, are warming up. One of their teachers is Allalaghatta Pavan. Pavan is also a former president of the Indian Music Society of Minnesota. He's been studying the tabla for 28 years, but is reluctant to refer to himself as a master.

ALLALAGHATTA PAVAN: I feel like I've just begun to scratch the surface, especially with my teacher around these days. That's how I feel.

CHRIS ROBERTS: Pavan's teacher is tabla virtuoso Ustad Shabbir Nissar. Nissar flew in from India, especially for the workshop. He starts to voice the sounds he wants the students to produce on their drums.

[VOCAL PERCUSSION]

The workshop is one of several educational programs the Indian Music Society of Minnesota, or IMSOM, offers. The organization started 26 years ago to provide a taste of home to first generation Indian immigrants. The number of Asian Indians in Minnesota has risen significantly since then, up to more than 30,000 in 2005. Allalaghatta Pavan says IMSOM still serves that community, but it's also fostering a deeper understanding and appreciation of the classical music of India in the larger population.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

According to Pavan, the best way to learn about Indian music is to go to one of the many concerts IMSOM presents throughout the year. They feature some of the most talented Indian musicians in the world. Pavan says Indian music is thousands of years old, extremely complex, and is very demanding of the musicians.

ALLALAGHATTA PAVAN: They tend to perform in spaces where there is a captive audience, which is there primarily for the music, with no other distractions. Because it really takes a little bit of intent listening to really get into it. Raga and tala are the driving forces of Indian classical music. Raga is the melodic framework. Tala is its rhythmic structure.

Indian music is very improvisational and spontaneous. Raga and tala inform how the improvisations and embellishments are carried out. Pavan says it's the knowledge of this musical architecture that allows any two Indian musicians to immediately begin collaborating.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Sometimes, people in the West find it so strange that two Indian musicians who have never crossed paths would meet and just create music on the spot. And that can only happen because these fundamentals are so strong, so strongly defined, and cultivated over the centuries by the great masters.

CHRIS ROBERTS: You can divide Indian classical music into two different styles, North and South. South Indian music, or Carnatic music, has what Pavan calls a spiritual devotional fervor to it. Approximately half of all Carnatic music is composed songs.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

North Indian music is also known as Hindustani music. Pavan says 90% of Hindustani music is improvisational, with occasional bits of text sounding romantic, social, even political themes.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Pavan says Indian music shares a kinship with jazz. It's a gift from musician to audience, created right in that moment, never to be repeated again. But to truly realize that gift, Pavan says listeners need to be patient.

ALLALAGHATTA PAVAN: The build up is really, really, really slow. So that, sometimes, for the Western listener, there is no instant gratification, if you will. I'm sorry, but it's a journey into that musical space. That is the most important aspect of Indian music.

CHRIS ROBERTS: The greatest audience growth for IMSOM-sponsored concerts is coming from outside the local Indian community. Allalaghatta Pavan isn't surprised.

ALLALAGHATTA PAVAN: It's the draw of the music most certainly. I mean, this music has crystallized to its present form over 2, 3,000 years. So that amount of refinement and sophistication that has gone into it clearly has to mean something.

CHRIS ROBERTS: Pavan says the Indian Music Society of Minnesota has played a small but important role in not only raising the profile of Indian music, but ethnic music in general. Given the growing diversity of the state's population, he says that can only be a good thing. I'm Chris Roberts, Minnesota Public Radio News.

[INDIAN CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYING]