NCPA A Summer of Creativity

From dance competitions and performances by students, summer workshops for children to the annual concert by the SOI Music Academy, this quarter at the NCPA ensures support to young talent in the arts.  
By Nidhi Lodaya   

The first quarter of the year at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in Mumbai, India, was a busy one across genres, each ushering in spring in its own way. The Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI) embarked on its 20-year celebration with a grand Spring 2026 Season, featuring four concerts led by distinguished conductors and world-renowned mezzo-soprano Dame Sarah Connolly and internationally acclaimed Italian tenor Davide Giusti.  

“We are fresh out of the wonderful cornucopia of music that we were treated to by maestros Martyn Brabbins and Carlo Rizzi. Particularly memorable was the concert at which the Dvořák and Sibelius symphonies were played,” notes Mr. Khushroo N. Suntook, Chairman, NCPA. This was the first season under Martyn Brabbins as the SOI’s Chief Conductor. “We are equally delighted to look back on the stellar events held recently. Sama’a, the festival of Sufi music, offered a variety of programmes, both illuminating and enjoyable. The Spectrum dance festival was well attended and the NCPA Soulful Blues is now carving out a space for itself with the quality of international musicians it attracts. The Vasant Gujarati Theatre Festival, since its revival last year, has been warmly received by the city’s theatregoers,” adds Mr. Suntook.  

Vasant, which translates to spring, offered a varied programming of experimental theatre, musicals, workshops, stand-up comedy and spoken word, with the NCPA campus embodying the vibrant spirit of Gujarati culture across four days in March. 

Students of the SOI Music Academy perform at their annual concert

The month of April, for most students in India, is the end of the academic year, and the same can be said for the children enrolled with the SOI Music Academy. Launched in 2012, the academy offers a holistic education in Western classical music inspired by the Russian Conservatoire method. After the year-end examinations, the students get busy with their annual concert attended not only by families and friends but music lovers in the city who keep their eyes peeled for new talent on the horizon. Joining the academy orchestra this year at the grand Jamshed Bhabha Theatre are students from Goa, Pune and Chennai.  

Another tradition for the warmer months that the NCPA has upheld for over one and a half decades is its annual Summer Fiesta programme for children across age groups. The 2026 edition, to be held from April to August, offers dynamic creativity-enhancing workshops—from theatre, dance and storytelling to stand-up comedy, debate, ventriloquism and YouTube content creation—enabling children to learn from seasoned professionals passionate about nurturing young talent. Age-appropriate plays are also part of the programming.  

Mudra, the NCPA’s annual thematic dance festival presented around International Dance Day, too focuses on young learners this year. The edition will take place in two parts—an interschool dance competition, a new initiative by the NCPA celebrating the future torchbearers of India’s rich classical dance heritage, and presentations by young learners of premier dance institutions. They will be performing a variety of Indian classical and folk dance styles.   

Saz-e-Bahar (clockwise from top right) Anant Joshi, Debashish Bhattacharya, Dr. M. Lalitha and Kalaimamani M. Nandini and Aravind Bhargav

The 13th edition of Saz-e-Bahar, a festival of Indian instrumental music in April, will showcase four independent groups of musicians wielding instruments adapted from the West but so deeply ingrained in India’s musical landscape that their provenance comes as a surprise to many. The first day will present Aravind Bhargav on mandolin and sisters Lalitha and Nandini Muthuswamy playing the violin. Anant Joshi will be playing the harmonium on day two, followed by Debashish Bhattacharya on slide guitar (gandharvi).  

(Left) Alemay Fernandez (Photo credit: Thai International Jazz Conference), (Right): Sorin Zlat

The NCPA will also be celebrating International Jazz Day in April with Alemay Fernandez, one of the best jazz voices in Asia, known for her sultry tone, improvised scatting, powerhouse vocals and high-energy stage presence. Sorin Zlat, an acclaimed pianist from Romania, will take the stage in June with his project Changing Times, whose sound encompasses cool jazz, post-bop, Latin, flamenco, funk to avant-garde, making it a testament to the universality of music. He will also be conducting a masterclass called The Power of the Jazz Ensemble: Leadership, Interaction & Sound. 

In May, the Dilip Piramal Art Gallery at the NCPA will host an exhibition by New Delhi-based photographer Abhishek Rajaram Khedekar, who is known to blend documentary styles with surrealist techniques. Tamasha is a docu-fiction photographic project that explores the everyday challenges faced by a 100-member family that practises the traditional theatrical art form of Tamasha. The project documents the discriminatory treatment meted out to this family that lives a nomadic life across the state of Maharashtra in western India. 

The Monk & The Warrior (Left) Jonathan Taikina Taylor (Photo credit: Ted Ely), (Right) Mahesh Dattani (Photo credit: Rahul Valmiki)

This will be a fruitful quarter for theatre lovers at the NCPA. The Monk & The Warrior, a cross-cultural epic, will be premiering here in April with six shows across four days. Written by acclaimed Indian playwright Mahesh Dattani, conceived and directed by Jonathan Taikina Taylor of The SuperGeographics (USA) with music by Eero Hämeenniemi (Finland), this play is a love story that invites audiences to follow a Bodhisattva and Alexander the Great through a surreal journey which weaves Indian and Western queer histories.  

Opening towards the end of April is the NCPA’s Pratibimb Marathi Natya Utsav, a stage for Marathi theatre. This five-day festival will be a melange of plays, readings, stand-up, workshops, poetry, spoken word, campus tours, talks and discussions by Marathi theatre experts. True to its name, Pratibimb offers a reflection of the vibrant tradition of theatre in Maharashtra, known for its thought-provoking themes that present the world around us in a new light.   

Death and the Maiden (clockwise from top right) Vivek Gomber, Ira Dubey and Neil Bhoopalam

The NCPA production of Ariel Dorfman’s Death and the Maiden will premiere in May. Directed by Bruce Guthrie, Head, Theatre & Films, NCPA, it is a gripping psychological thriller that explores trauma, memory and the thin line between justice and vengeance. The cast includes noted actors Ira Dubey, Vivek Gomber and Neil Bhoopalam. 

With events across genres programmed through the summer, the NCPA offers ample avenues for meaningful engagement with the arts.