New York (TIP): Renowned ‘khayal’ vocalist Pandit Jasraj and Mishra Brothers are among the musicians who are scheduled to perform at the 25th MIT’s Heritage of the Arts of South Asia festival.

Pt Jasraj’s performance is the highlight of the coming spring season, which begins from March 30. The Classical vocalist will take to the mic on May 19 at MIT’s Kresge Auditorium.

Delhi-based brother duo Rajan and Sajan Mishra and Kolkata-based Kaushiki Chakraborty are also expected to perform at the music festival, known as MITHAS.

The line-up of the South Indian artistes is equally promising.

Senior vocalist and Padmabhushan T V Sankaranarayanan, in collaboration with the Learnquest Festival at Regis College, will give the open the festival, the same evening Chakraborty is scheduled to perform, MITHAS said in a statement.

Chaired by Anuradha Palakurthi, the festival allows students from elementary school through graduate school to attend all programes for free.

“We are so far away from our homeland and we have a responsibility to carry this musical tradition forward,” said Palakurthi, a widely acclaimed Boston-based singer who has performed and recorded with Bollywood giants such as Suresh Wadkar, Kumar Sanu, Hariharan and Bappi Lahiri.

“Growing up in India we benefitted from free entry to classical shows at colleges because of organisations like Spic-MACAY, and I want to do the same for students music-lovers in Boston,” said Palakurthi, who has also recorded an album with Ustad Nishad Khan of Imdadkhani Etawah gharana.

Artistes such as Ali Akbar Khan, Zakir Hussain, Hariprasad Chaurasia, M Balamuralikrishna, TN Krishnan, T Viswanathan, V V Subrahmanyam, Sanjay Subrahmanyan, TM Krishna and Chitraveena Ravikiran have performed at MITHAS in the past.

“When I look back at the work of MITHAS, I am amazed at how many people have come together to present so many of South Asia’s finest artists in concerts and lectures,” said George Ruckert, one of the founders of MITHAS, who came to MIT to teach music in 1991.