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The period of the lockdown was of utmost importance as we had the time to sit back, reinvent our objectives and strategy and look at modern management processes in keeping with the changing times,” says Khushroo Suntook, chairman of the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA). "All management issues, including peripheral matters like the future of the restaurant at the NCPA (which had to be closed during the lockdown as it could not sustain itself financially) could be resolved.”
Fortunately, the season of the SOI ended before March 10, 2020 and the foreign artistes were able to return home without much difficulty. But 50 musicians stayed at the NCPA throughout the lockdown. Of these 18 were foreigners who self-isolated themselves in their own rooms practicing furiously all the time often under the remote eagle eye of Marat Bisengaliev, music director of the Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI).
The pandemic hiatus, away from the day-to-day administration of concerts and performances, was used to digitalize some of the NCPA’s immortal repository performances on video and audio. Sankalp Meshram, who has won the National Film Award for the best Arts/Cultural film was appointed in August 2020 to examine the archives and finalize a list of what he believed was possible to convert to a digital format. He has chosen over 100 films which need color correction and other minor alteration.
 "Once this is done the problem is to disseminate the performances to a wider audience. Selling is a different ball game. From April 2020 onwards, the sales department has been putting up a few films every month on YouTube and the NCPA website and more than 2,00,000 people have visited the concerts.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

However, Suntook explains, the jewel in the crown is the archive of Indian classical music for the international Indian diaspora where regular performances have been recorded on tapes. NCPA believes that there is a huge potential to disseminate these all over the world. "The Indian diaspora has spread far and wide. This is the market to be tapped. Several of them are passionate about Indian classical music and have limited possibilities of watching live or digital performances. The evidence of this can be gauged by the Zakir Hussain video show with a jazz quartet in America which went viral.” During the lockdown, it was realized that the future of the NCPA need not be confined to the Tata Theatre and the Jamshed Bhabha Theatre or even to theaters with limited seating capacity all over the world. The aim of the NCPA is not to cater to a thousand spectators who visit these spaces. With the expansion of digital media, future performances will include live screening and displaying this on the internet so that Indians and other interested audiences from all over the world starved of Indian classical music concerts could watch live virtual performances and other international offerings.
Where western classical music is concerned, the SOI is not confined to Bombay. It has spread its wings all over India. In July 2019 in Bangalore and in Mysore they performed at the palace of the former Maharaja who, besides being an afficionado for western classical music, even supported the Philharmonic Orchestra in London during its formative years. The SOI has performed at the Kremlin, in Zurich, Geneva and London, always to rave reviews and astounding success. It has become a fine opera orchestra and has presented opera and choral performances in India and abroad. Hussain, who has been inducted on the NCPA Council, has composed pieces for tabla and orchestra. He has also composed an orchestral work featuring tabla, two Indian singers and a mezzo soprano. "People may complain it is like eating bhel puri with steak but his work has been greatly appreciated,” stated Suntook.
Also planned are 25 concerts of Indian classical music by Dr Suvarnalata Rao, who heads Indian music programing and who has contacted these players and brought them on board. The Indian dance section is making rapid strides under the guidance of Mallika Sarabhai and Aditi Mangaldas.
Though charges are often levied against NCPA over the lack of Indian players in the SOI, the goal remains to induct as many Indians as possible. Their number is steadily increasing. "We are always on the search for suitable talent and have discovered that Nagaland is full of musical people. I hope that they, along with our talented students, will be part of the SOI someday,” observed the chairman. However, it should also be realized that orchestras all over the world tend to be international in their composition. The German orchestra at Berlin has more than 20 nationalities: the contingent of Chinese, Koreans and Japanese is high.
Once again, this period has given the management time to retrospect in the area of musical education and training. "We are now looking at education and focusing on modernizing our teaching. Children want to pursue a career in music which was never the case in the past. London based Soli Nalaseth, one of the star pupils of the NCPA’s Music Academy, recently performed in Bombay and is presently completing his studies abroad.”
The management has also brought on board Bruce Guthrie, an award-winning theater director, who has directed productions all over the world and who is now working with theater in Bombay to make it more professional. Richard Nowell, a wonderful technical person has also been appointed. "He managed a revolutionary and inventive production of Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème in a big park: the conductor on the second level, the orchestra on the first level and the performance on ground level,” stated Suntook.
On February 3, 2021, the SOI played a program of light classical and popular music as well as jazz along with guest artistes. The program attracted a broad cross-section of the public who after watching digital programs for the last 10 months finally had a chance to witness a live performance. It is unfortunate that with the spike in the cases of Covid-19, the NCPA had to close its doors once again again as a matter of abundant caution. But, after the opening concert at the beginning of February, NCPA was inundated with a host of congratulatory messages on email, facebook, twitter and other social media, "for opening its doors with all safety norms and precautions.” One member of the audience felt that "only the NCPA could have managed this.” People were ecstatic to see "some normalcy creep back in” their lives.  However, one compliment says it all: "Coming back to the NCPA felt like coming back to an old friend and the return to all that’s good in life.” No, the NCPA has not cooled its heels during the last 10 months.