NCPA Mumbai’s new Music Appreciation & Training Centre
By K. A. Divecha, Senior Advisor - Western Music, National Centre for the Performing Arts, Mumbai

Although the Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI) concerts have proved immensely popular with Indian audiences, orchestral playing is still relatively undeveloped in India. In a bid to advance the art in this country, the SOI has created an intensive education programme for young Indian musicians as part of the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA)’s new Music Appreciation & Training Centre.

The SOI’s audition process last year identified five new Indian musicians who have shown enough talent to join the educational programme. This brings the number of Indian players in the orchestra to 15, a respectable core around which NCPA will continue to build.

Lecture Series
A lecture series in Western music is provided once a week to Indian musicians and incorporates a whole host of information from performance practice, history, and a survey of musical works to listening and discussion of specific scores.

NCPA Quartet in Residence
The NCPA Quartet in Residence represents the various sections of the string orchestra and provides teaching at a high level to Indian musicians. They cover stylistic interpretation as well as technical skill. They form the core teaching staff of the orchestra and NCPA plans to expand the programme to include the specific skills required for the performance of chamber music.

Individual Lessons
The Indian musicians also benefit from intensive individual lessons from the NCPA Quartet in Residence, and deal with technical and musical aspects of their growth as musicians as relevant to their particular needs.

Nurturing Young Talent
The NCPA is committed to teaching young, highly talented musicians, who join on a merit-based evaluation, for individual lessons with the Quartet in Residence. This “Quartet” forms part of the international teaching faculty, actively engaged in visiting schools, and encouraging people to participate in this the development of India’s musical future.

Suzuki Method
Part of this process will be the implementation of the Suzuki Method of string teaching, which introduces players as young as four years old to the basics of string technique, providing a solid foundation for their future musical development. The NCPA’s programme of Suzuki Method tuition will begin in Jun 08, involving pupils aged 4-7 from schools across Mumbai.

More about the Symphony Orchestra of India

The Symphony Orchestra of India is the country’s first fully professional symphony orchestra, offering a series of concerts at the NCPA in Mumbai over the course of two seasons each year, in September and February. The orchestra has also begun to tour nationally and to take music into communities in order to enthuse new and young audiences around India.
The SOI was formed in 2006 as the result of an on-going collaboration between the NCPA and the internationally acclaimed Kazakh violinist, Marat Bisengaliev, who serves as the orchestra’s Music Director. Players are recruited from an international field, with a core of instrumentalists drawn from the West Kazakhstan Philharmonic Orchestra. Many of the principal players are also teachers, and the orchestra places a great emphasis on developing musical potential within India itself.

International Profile
In early 2008, the SOI presented its Fourth Season of concerts, with an ambitious programme of symphonic music that culminated in its first opera, the Indian premiere of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly.

The orchestra has worked with a raft of internationally renowned soloists, including Michael Collins, Raphael Wallfisch and John Lenehan. The next season includes collaborations with Russian pianist Andrei Gavrilov and British oboist Malcolm Messiter, and future plans include collaborations with The Royal Ballet as well as a revival of Madama Butterfly.

Besides presenting orchestral and chamber music concerts, the SOI is becoming as a prestigious accompanying ensemble for soloists as well as for ballets, operas and musicals. It is also establishing its services internationally as a resource for making recordings.