Music is every child’s birthright
The Foundation is the giving heart of this family — bringing music to children who would otherwise never encounter it, keeping India’s living traditions on stage, and opening the door for anyone who wants to help.
Our Vision
To make music the birthright of every child.
Our Mission
To empower and uplift children and communities through music — revolutionising music education in schools, bringing India’s musical heritage within every child’s reach, and creating a new profession for young musicians, especially young women, as certified music educators.
“Our emotions, our intellect and our body all connect through music. When we learn music from a young age, we develop into stronger and more sensitive human beings.”
— Shubhendra & Saskia Rao
Where the music reaches furthest
From the lanes of Nizamuddin Basti to Tata Steel’s communities in Jharkhand, the Foundation teaches Indian classical music to underprivileged, differently-abled, and seriously ill children — with trained teachers, a real curriculum, and documented, measurable impact.
For CSR partners, this is music education as serious social investment. The Foundation holds 80G and 12A registration (tax-deductible in India), with annual reports available on request.
The work spans outreach music classes, teacher training, children’s concerts, our Baithak series, the Sitar Ramarao Utsav, international collaborations with embassies, and a growing family of volunteers and interns.
The numbers open doors with our partners; what we measure in children is confidence, belonging, and joy — what music awakens in each of them. And in our Music for Children, by Children concerts, children from the bastis and children from partner schools perform on one stage, as equals.
Unlock the Music
When the pandemic silenced India’s stages, this family opened their own home. Unlock the Music — an e-baithak concert series from their living room — gave the country’s greatest musicians a stage when there was none, each performing to an intimate audience and a camera, with a Q&A where the world could ask the legends anything.
Every concert remains free to watch, forever. Watch the full series on our YouTube channel →
Sitar Ramarao Utsav
Pandit N. R. Rama Rao (1927–2004) — Shubhendra’s father — was the legendary musician who popularised Hindustani classical music and the sitar in Karnataka. In 1951, with his mother’s blessings, he left home for Delhi and surrendered himself to learning at the feet of Pandit Ravi Shankar, becoming one of his earliest and closest disciples — a Guru-shishya bond so devoted that music circles still speak of it in the words above.
The Sitar Ramarao Utsav is this family’s deeply personal tribute — organised through the Foundation by his son, his family, and his disciples from across the globe, celebrating in Bengaluru the life of a man who gave everything to his instrument, his Guru, and the cultural life of Karnataka.
Download the Utsav Brochure
The Utsav begins
Pt. Shubhendra Rao with Pt. Bickram Ghosh — followed by the living legend Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia with Pt. Ravindra Yavagal.
2024 media coverage report →The family widens
The Sitar Ramarao Ensemble — students of the late Pt. Rama Rao. Vidushi Saskia Rao with Ishaan Ghosh, and Vidushi Shubha Mudgal with Pt. Aneesh Pradhan.
2025 media coverage report →Reviving musical celebrations
The intimate baithak — music shared at close quarters, the way it has always been — lives on in the Foundation’s seasonal celebrations, where the calendar’s most auspicious days are honoured the oldest way: with music.
Holi Baithak
The festival of colours celebrated in song — with Vidushi Sunanda Sharma and Rajasthani folk artists filling the baithak with the music of spring.
Saraswati Puja
On the goddess of music’s own day, musicians of every age and every level come to offer their music — from first-year students to masters, all equal before Saraswati.
Silence Concerts
Do you ever feel that classical music is difficult? Inaccessible — meant only for those already initiated into it? That makes us sad, because it isn’t true. It takes only a small adjustment to the setting of a concert to open this music to everyone, in its purest form. That adjustment is the Silence Concert.
At IIM Shillong, students hearing Indian classical music for the first time were in tears by the end. More than twenty came to us afterwards — not because they had learned to appreciate music, but because they had reconnected with something they had forgotten they needed.
What happens is transformative for everyone present, and that includes us. When an audience listens with that much attention, the music itself changes. Musician and listener arrive somewhere together that neither reaches alone.
Preparation — the few ground rules are set, and every device is handed in.
Introduction — we speak briefly about listening, and about what this music can do.
The music — pure raga with tabla, opening with one full minute of silence.
The silence — five minutes of complete stillness after the music stops. Often the most profound part of the evening.
Integration — reflection together, and a toolkit for anyone who wants to carry the practice home.
No devices. No applause. No movement once we begin. These are not restrictions — they are what makes the depth possible.
Pandit Shubhendra Rao — TEDx
We have brought Silence Concerts to management institutes, corporate teams, wellness retreats, and concert halls — and to students who had never heard a raga before. No prior knowledge is needed, only the willingness to sit still. Because of our performance schedule and the acoustics each concert asks for, we take on a limited number every year.
The world comes to our classrooms
International artists perform in our partner schools, in collaboration with embassies and individual artists — collaborators generous enough to share their art and their culture directly with students. For the children, the world arrives at their own school assembly.
East West Orchestra at Suncity School
An orchestra bridging traditions, performing for the students of Suncity.
Peruvian musicians & dancers at The Infinity School
The music and dance of the Andes, alive in a Delhi-NCR school hall.
Rami Gabriel, Lebanese-American oud player
The ancient voice of the oud, performed for the students of Manav Rachna International School.
We always need volunteers & interns
Not someday — now. The Foundation runs on people who give a few hours and get back something no salary offers: children discovering music because of you. Whatever you can offer, there is a place for you here.
Teach music — musicians and music lovers who can give regular hours to our outreach classes in Delhi. We train you in the Sangeet4All way.
Help organise — hands and minds for events and festivals, including the Sitar Ramarao Utsav in Bengaluru: production, coordination, hospitality, everything a festival needs.
Lend your skills — photography, design, writing, translation, fundraising: every craft has a use in this household.
Every volunteer is recognised with a certificate — and remembered as part of the family.
The Foundation is supported by
We are immensely grateful for the overwhelming support we have received from organisations, CSR programmes, government bodies, and many individuals. Your support makes the difference — join the movement.
The world’s educators, on this work
“In studying El Sistema as it has grown around the world, I have come to recognize programs with significant potential to grow and make a dramatic change in the lives of children in need, their families and communities. I see the early hallmarks of such potential in the work of the Rao Foundation. To have artists of such high excellence leading the program, who also have superb instincts and ethics as educators, is a promising combination. I urge your active support.”
— Eric Booth · one of the world’s leading authorities in arts education · Juilliard, Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center Institute · February 2015
“The Foundation is offering fresh ways to learn and understand music. I offer my admiration and fullest support in their endeavour.”
— Padma Vibhushan Dr. Sonal Mansingh“Finding artists like yourselves who have the artistic quality and the ability to communicate with both students and adults in such a clear and interesting way is such a gift.”
— The Kennedy Center, Washington D.C.Give a child music
Every contribution — as an individual, a family, or a CSR partner — goes directly into classrooms, instruments, teachers, and stages for children who would otherwise never have them. It was never about the numbers; it is about what the music awakens in each child. All donations are eligible for 80G tax benefits, and our annual reports are available on request.
Make a Donation Enquiry
“Music is the birthright of every child.”