Known mostly for his accomplishment as a Kathak (Indian classical dance) performer, Birju Maharaj will render thumris composed by his grandfather, Bindadin Maharaj of the Lucknow Gharana.

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The piece, it turns out, was composed by Dena El Saffar, a Chicago-born Iraqi-American who has spent years learning to play the august classical music of her ancestors, the style known as maqam.

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Yet some Americans have practised subversion as well, including Uri Caine, a pianist known for reshaping classical masterworks in his own ebullient way.

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Characterized by the accompaniment of the ''saz, '' a stringed musical instrument, the classical repertoire includes 200 songs, 150 literary-musical compositions known as ''dastans, '' nearly 2, 000 poems in different traditional poetic forms and numerous stories.

UNESCO: Culture