NCPA

Indian music has, among all the performing arts, always had a pride of place in Mumbai. This island city has from colonial times been a major patron to the region’s vocalists and instrumentalists and has played a key role in the emergence of a professional music industry in India.

 

Over the years, NCPA has promoted major strands of Indian music, including Hindustani, Carnatic and regional/folk forms, with the help of our collaborators, patrons and corporate sponsors, whose support has enabled us to sustain our momentum in this field, even in financially challenging times.

 

Today, the NCPA continues to feature a wide spectrum of artists, from promising newcomers to established performers and top-ranking living legends, all of whom perform music across a range of genres.

Dr Suvarnalata Rao is the Head — Programming for Indiam Music.

 

The NCPA is committed to creating and sustaining a major body of artistic work on an ongoing basis through its own artistic properties, festivals and events.

 

The NCPA’s 2012 season includes the following regular platforms and festivals:

 

For the first time ever, Citi India with the NCPA presented a unique travelling festival of Indian Music across three cities: Mumbai (January 7 &8, 2012), Delhi (January 25 & 26) and Bengaluru (February 10). Presenting works that are deeply embedded in tradition, yet seeking to reach out into the infinite realms of creativity, fostered by the contemporary socio-cultural milieu, Citi-NCPA Aadi Anant Festival of Indian Music explores and celebrates the vitality with which artistic traditions keep redefining and rejuvenating themselves. The festival is based on the juxtaposition of the concepts of eternity and those that are bound by time, and how the two co-exist in our lives. The concept of eternity (anant) denotes that which has neither a beginning (aadi) nor an end (ant). It is inherent in Indian philosophy, where time is viewed as being not linear, but cyclical.

 

This year the Mumbai edition witnessed two enthralling performances on Januray 7 & 8, 2012 at Tata Theatre, NCPA featuring Zakir Hussain with Louiz Banks (keyboards), Rakesh Chaurasia (bansuri), and Ganesh Rajgopalan (violin), and Rashid Khan (vocal) with Shujaat Khan (sitar). The Delhi edition had
Taufiq Qureshi (Djembe), Niladri Kumar (sitar & zitar), Gino Banks (drums), Satyajit Talwalkar (tabla), Sheldon D’silva (bass) and Angelo Fernandes (keyboards), and Ashwini Bhide (vocal) with Sanjeev Abhayankar (vocal) – Jasrangi Jugalbandhi, perform on January 25 & 26, 2012 at Kamani Auditorium. The Bengaluru edition (February 10, 2012) featured two back to back performances by celebrated Indian musicians on the same day: Kaushiki Chakrabarty Desikan’s (vocal solo) performance will be followed by Talavadya Kacheri: Anindo Chatterji (tabla), Kaaraikkudi Mani (mridangam), V. Suresh (ghatam) and N. Amrith (kanjira), at Chowdiah Memorial Hall. Click here for the press release.
 

Indian music, be it art, semi-classical, light, folk, devotional or popular music, centers on well-structured melodic and rhythmic compositions also known as bandish. It represents a central idea or base upon which the edifice of the performance is sculpted and realised. A ‘bandish’ is that which is bound, encased and pre-composed in a sense. It is used in the context of vocal or instrumental music. The term ‘bandish’ essentially means to tie or bind, and is hence rightly used with reference to taal or beat and raga or tune. In July 2010, the NCPA, India’s premier arts and culture institution, launched ‘Bandish: The Festival of Legendary Composers’ with the aim of allowing one to revel in a celebration of legendary composers and their compositions; to transcend through music, its musings and its unravelling.
 
In 2011, the festival was supported by Tata Capital and it featured compositions of legendary composers such as Faiyaz Khan, Inayat Hussain Khan, Alladiya Khan, Kumar Gandharva, Kabir, Tulsidas & Surdas performed by Ghulam Husnain Khan, Rashid Khan, Shubha Mudgal, Anup Jalota, Ashwini Bhide Deshpande, & Vasundhara Komkal. In 2010, Dhrupad exponents Gundecha brothers paid tribute to Miyan Tansen, Ulhas Kashalkar sang the compositions of poets Adarang and Sadarang, Bombay Jayashri sang the compositions of Muthuswamy Dikshitar and Papanasam Sivan and Shujat Hussain Khan sang the compositions of the Sufi mystic saint poet Hazrat Amir Khusrau. NCPA Bandish 2012 will take place from July 6 to 8, 2012, and will feature compositions of  Bade Ghulam Ali, SN Ratanjankar, Purandaradasa, Thygaraja, Bade Ramdasji, Shambhunath Mishra and Shyamcharam Mishra.
 

Soak in the mystique of Sufi this November as the NCPA will present its annual three-day Sufi Music Festival — Sama’a: The Mystic Ecstasy — featuring  a presentation, an Indian Sufi music concert and an international Sufi music concert as a part of each year’s festival line-up. Sama’a, an Arabic word meaning ‘to listen’, is used to describe the Sufi practice which helps attain spiritual ecstasy through song, music and dance. Sufi music has the potential to create a serene atmosphere—a major focus of the festival is to underline the relationship between the Sufi philosophy and its musical traditions. With this festival, the NCPA aims to offer its patrons a taste of the manifold flavours of Sufi musical tradition.

Sama’a was started in 2009 as a two-day festival (10th & 11th December, 2009) of Sufi music, that featured the eminent sitar player Shujaat Husain Khan on the 10th December, 2009. A group of Langas & Manganiyars from Rajasthan, followed by qawwals from Fatehpur Sikri: Salim Hasan Chisthti and his troupe entranced audiences on11th December.

Sama’a 2010 (November 17-19, 2010) traced the journey of Sufi music from Central Asia to India. The line-up for the festival included ‘An Ode to Rumi by Kabir Bedi’ on November 17th; Nuba Awamrya: Brotherhood music by the whirling dervishes from Tunisia and Qawwali by Haji Aslam Sabri and group on November 18th. Sufiana compositions by Roopkumar and Sunali Rathod on November 19th.

In its third successful year, Sama’a 2011 featured a documentary on the life of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, followed by a Sufi Gospel Presentation based on Poetry and Music by Sonam Kalra, and performances by Wadali Brothers and Sama Ayins: Whirling Prayer Ceremonies by Konya Turkish Tasawwuf ensemble from Turkey.

 

Sama'a 2012 will be presented from Thursday, November 22, 2012 to Saturday, November 24, 2012. On November 22 November, the festival will feature a film on Amir Khusrau by Yousuf Saeed followed by a Sufi poetry reading by Farooque Shaikh. On November 23, we will present an evening of Sufi music with an international singer. The final day of the festival will feature an illustrated lecture based on Sufi paintings by Dr. B.N.Goswamy, followed by a dance presentation on the Sufi theme by Malavika Sarukkai, an accomplished Bharatnatyam dancer.

 

“We’re trying to bridge man-made divides through music. Even if language is foreign, music instantly connects,” said Dr. Suvarnalata Rao, Head —Programming (Indian Music) NCPA, when the NCPA decided to curate a festival that was meant to showcase varied musical traditions and reaffirm the peaceful co-existence of cultural and artistic plurality in the world.  The world that we live in is buzzing with myriad traditions and musical forms across various indigenous cultures; music from around the world exerts wide cross-cultural influence as styles influence one another. With this festival NCPA celebrates the power of music as the healing force that promotes cross-cultural understanding, and remind people of all cultures and religions that we share a common humanity.  

One World Many Music 2010 was a two-day festival (December, 15th and 16th, 2011). Day 1 saw Indian Ocean, one of the oldest running Indo rock bands with band members like Susmit Sen (Guitar), Rahul Ram (Vocals), Amit Kilam (Drums), Himanshu Joshi (Vocals), Tuheen Chakravorty (Tabla & Indian Percussions). Day two brought together percussion wizard Shivmani, Jazz legend, Louis Banks, Sitar virtuoso Niladri Kumar as an ensemble Asia Electrik. One World Many Musics 2009 saw a delightful evening with Rahul Sharma (Santoor), Aditya Kalyanpur (Tabla), Jayati Gosher (Rabab & Bass Guitar) and Prasad Sashtey (Keyboard).

 

In its third edition, this festival of contemporary Indian music expressions, featured popular acclaimed artistes – Midival Punditz, U Srinivas and Shri (who played as U Srinivas + Shri — A Collaboration) on December 15th and 16th, 2011 respectively.
 

NCPA Umang Series, supported by the NS Foundation, gives a platform to young and upcoming artistes every month. These performances are free and open to all. Every other month, the Umang Series features an Indian Classical Music artist. 

 

 

 

 

This is a quarterly series which features documentaries made on music.