MUMBAI: Striving to provide a blend of Indian and western tunes to music aficionados, the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA) is all geared up to host an array of classic western music concerts and Indian music acts this June.
The month will begin with the Young Talent concert being held on 4 June. Featuring Snehaerica Fonseca and Nicole Fernandes on the piano, the western music recital will include works by Beethoven, Chopin, Schubert, Schumann, Debussy, Grieg and Piazolla amongst others.
The popular NCPA Umang series concert will be held on 7 June, and will showcase Kapil Jadhav (sundari) and Ronkini Gupta (vocal). The Hindustani music recital will feature the talented vocalist Gupta, who won the Hindustani Classical Vocal competition at Doverlane Music Conference in 2000 and also won the World Series for Sa Re Ga Ma Pa in 2004.
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It will be followed up with a western music concert ‘Living Voices’ in association with Bombay Music and Cultural Society. The choir is known for its versatility, and their repertoire includes Gregorian, spirituals, folk songs, modern, contemporary, popular, jazz and more.
The performance will feature Bianca Mendonca (cello), Silviya Mihaylova (piano), Alaric Diniz (clarinet) and Apurva Devarajan (piano). It will also include works by Grieg, Giampieri, Lecuona, Ketelby, Berlin, Vittoria, John Williams, Tauber, Gjeilo, Dickau, folk songs, spirituals and other popular songs.
Another choral music concert by the ‘Cantata Choir’ will be showcased by NCPA on 12 June. It will feature soloists Natasha Collaco (soprano) and Kersi Gazdar (tenor), Pianoforte Marilynne Chhabra and Natasha Collaco, violinist Ernest Menezes and Errol Monserrate, Gumot Raymond Albuquerque and will be conducted by Olga Collaco.
The programme will include The Little Flower Mass by PA Kaufer and Sacred Music by Arcadelt, Handel, Mendelssohn, Lambillotte S J, Battman, Johnson and Gaus. It will also include spirituals and Konkani mando, dulpods and dakni.
A mono-act musical play paying tribute to the poet Soordas and his lyrical compositions will be held on 14 June. In collaboration with Sahachari Foundation, music composer, lyricist and actor Shekhar Sen internationally known for his unique mono-act musical plays, will reveal the life, works and philosophy of the blind saint, poet and musician who went on to create a magnum opus, Sur Sagar, dedicated to Krishna.
The play covers 105 years of the saint’s life, touching on very interesting tales of becoming the lead figure of Ashta-chhap poets, meeting with Swami Haridas, Mahaprabhu Vallabhacharya, Tulsidas, Meerabai, Akbar and Tansen. The two-hour play comprises pof 36 melodious song sequences in which Sen has creatively used many common and rare ragas.
Moving further, the NCPA Legends will celebrate legendary women jazz vocalists with a special concert on 15 June. Performing for the same will be Hidekai Tokunaga (guitar), Tala Faral (saxophone) and Samantha Edwards (vocals).
Jazz has undergone many changes from the 1930s, when it was dance and popular music, to the 1940s, when it focused on small groups and individual soloists. In the 1950s, jazz gained another dimension through vocalists. Mainly female, these vocalists like Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Betty Carter and Carmen McRae gave jazz a new personality which was added to its mainstream. NCPA, along with Jazz Addicts are focusing on these legends, which brought about this musical change.
Jazz celebrations will continue with another concert featuring Sharik Hasan’s New York Quartet on 19 June. It will feature performances by Sharik Hasan (piano), Adam Larson (saxophone), Philippe Lemm (drums) and Raviv Markowitz (double bass).
Another western classical music concert titled ‘De la Felicidad’ will be held on 21 June in association with Istituto Cervantes and ATER-Associazione Teatrale Emilia Romagna. It will comprise of Ara Malikian (violin) and Juan Francisco Padilla (guitar). The programme will include works by de Falla, Albeniz, Sarasate, Paco de Lucia and other traditional Spanish music.
Bringing to the fore the tunes of Beethoven, a Beethoven and Jadin String Trios western classical music concert will be held on 25 and 26 June. It will showcase the trio Hugues Borsarello (violin), Nicolas Bône (viola) and Gauthier Herrmann (cello).
NCPA will also play host to the multi-arts Mood Indigo fest by IIT Mumbai College on 27 June. The cultural fest will feature a plethora of talent from the youth which includes ‘Swaranjali’ a duet instrumental. The top two competitors here will soothe the audience with the melody synonymous with classical music and relive the joys of the ragas and alaps.
The month will culminate with an Indian music concert titled ‘Nad Ninad: From Our Archives’ on 28 June. The guided listening session on the musical artistry of Gajananbua Joshi will be conducted by Suresh Talwalkar and Vikas Kashalkar in collaboration with the Indian Musicological Society.
A tribute concert on his 26th death anniversary, his eminent disciples Suresh Talwalkar and Vikas Kashalkar will present a listening session to highlight his musical genius.
