Alve

Feb 09, 2023

NCPA - Symphony Orchestra of India

The Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI), based at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), Mumbai, is India’s first and only professional orchestra. It was founded in 2006 by NCPA Chairman Khushroo N. Suntook and internationally-renowned violin virtuoso Marat Bisengaliev, who serves as the Orchestra’s Music Director. Zane Dalal was appointed Associate Music Director of the SOI in September 2014, following serving seven years as Resident Conductor. Mikel Toms serves as the current Resident Conductor.

The SOI has worked with such renowned conductors as Martyn Brabbins, Carlo Rizzi, Augustin Dumay, Yuri Simonov, Jacek Kaspszyk, Charles Dutoit, Lior Shambadal, Rafael Payare, Adrian Leaper, Johannes Wildner, Duncan Ward, Karl Jenkins, Mischa Damev, Alexander Anissimov, Christoph Poppen, and more. Past Resident Conductors of the SOI have included Evgeny Bushkov and Piotr Borkowski. Soloists appearing with the SOI have included Maria João Pires, Augustin Dumay, Simon O’Neill, Cédric Tiberghien, Alina Ibragimova, Stephen Hough, Barry Douglas, Angel Blue, Zakir Hussain, Edgar Meyer, Béla Fleck, Tamás Vásáry, and Lena Neudauer, amongst others.

International tours have seen the SOI perform in the Hall of Columns, Moscow; the Royal Opera House, Muscat; and the Emirates Palace Auditorium, Abu Dhabi, to open the 2015-16 Abu Dhabi Classics season. In January 2016, the SOI presented three sold-out concerts in Switzerland—at the Tonhalle, Zurich; Victoria Hall, Geneva; and the Tonhalle, St. Gallen—on invitation from the Migros Kulturprozent Classics series. Le Temps hailed “the commitment, the enthusiasm, and the discipline of this ensemble, which played with ferocious energy and appetite.” In February 2019, the SOI embarked on a six-concert tour to the United Kingdom, performing to delighted audiences in prestigious venues in London, Birmingham, Cardiff, Guildford, and Edinburgh, and garnering rave reviews.

Apart from the mainstays of the symphonic repertoire, the NCPA and SOI have also presented large-scale productions including fully-staged operas. In 2017, the SOI premiered a highly-acclaimed, innovative new production of La Bohème, conducted by Carlo Rizzi, featuring an international star cast.

The Orchestra’s core group of musicians is resident at the NCPA all year round and forms the SOI Chamber Orchestra, performing a regular series of concerts through the year at the NCPA and at other venues around Mumbai and India. Additional players are recruited from a talented pool of professionals from around the world.

In 2006, the NCPA founded the Symphony Orchestra of India, the country’s first and only full-time professional orchestra, which performs regular concerts at the NCPA and on tour in India and internationally. Apart from the SOI, orchestras that have been heard on the NCPA stages include the London Symphony Orchestra with Sir Colin Davis and Daniel Harding, BBC Scottish with Sir James MacMillan, Royal Flemish Philharmonic (now the Antwerp Symphony) with Philippe Herreweghe, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande with Osmo Vänskä, and many more. Chamber music and recitals have featured such artistes as Stephen Kovacevich, Andreas Haefliger, Sumi Jo, Dame Felicity Lott, the Kodály Quartet, in addition to the biannual Artie’s chamber music festival, to name just a few. Screenings include The Metropolitan Opera’s award-winning Live in HD series and ballet screenings from the Bolshoi.

India is a promising venue for Western classical music, as the enthusiastic, growing audiences, and the calibre of artistes who repeatedly visit, attest, and the NCPA remains at the forefront of presenting performances in this genre.