NCPA Mumbai: Looking Ahead

The National Centre for the Performing Arts, India, gears up for a packed calendar of fine performances, festivals and educational initiatives for young artistes.

By Aishwarya Bodke

Close on the heels of a sparkling spring season of the Symphony Orchestra of India, an array of annual festivals embracing the cultural wealth of Indian performing arts will unfold on the stages of the NCPA. In a novel initiative, the calendar for International Music at the NCPA, a genre which curates jazz, blues, soul, rock, funk, pop and world music programmes, has been announced for all of 2025 and the beginning of 2026.

“A major achievement of the NCPA is to encourage and grow five major genres in a comparatively restrictive space and yet not sacrifice the quality of its presentations. Sama’a, our festival of Sufi music and the Spectrum dance festival were successful, and now, our audiences are looking forward to the Mudra Dance Festival and Saz-e-Bahar, a celebration of Indian instrumental music,” says Mr. Khushroo N. Suntook, Chairman, NCPA.

To be a nurturing home to the abundance of Indian musical forms has been a priority since the NCPA’s inception 55 years ago. The subcontinent displays a wide variety of musical instruments with considerable specialisation in usage. Saz-e-Bahar, in its 12th edition in April, will showcase an all-women line-up of noted instrumentalists: Jyoti Hegde (rudra veena), Debopriya and Suchismita Chatterjee (bansuri duet), Jayashree Aravind (Saraswati veena) and Sukanya Ramgopal (ghata tarang, ghatam and konnakol).

Jayashree Aravind will be performing at the 2025 edition of Saz-e-Bahar

Sham-e-Ghazal: A Bouquet of Ghazals will see Sneha Shankar and Kaamod Subhash present classic as well as popular ghazals immortalised by legendary singers like Mehdi Hasan, Ghulam Ali and Begum Akhtar.

A highlight of Apr is the celebration of International Dance Day with the NCPA Mudra Dance Festival, the annual thematic dance festival featuring performances, workshops and exhibitions. This year, the festival continues its exploration of aharya, which encompasses the exquisite jewellery, textiles and make-up integral to classical dance styles and plays a vital role in not only enhancing the visual appeal of performances but also serves as a medium for storytelling. Bharatanatyam by Malavika Sarukkai, Odissi by Aruna Mohanty & troupe, Kathak by Saswati Sen & troupe, The Ramayana – A Dance Drama in Puppet Style by Rangasri Little Ballet Troupe are among the key performances.

A highlight of the NCPA Mudra Dance Festival is Bharatanatyam by Malavika Sarukkai

While consistent efforts are made to enhance the theatrical landscape in accordance with global standards, the centre upholds the cultural wealth of India’s regional theatre. The Vasant Gujarati Natya Utsav will be making a long-awaited comeback in Apr, featuring productions by well-known theatre-makers Manoj Shah, Saumya Joshi and Ankit Gor, among others. In addition, the month of May remains synonymous with the flagship festival Pratibimb Marathi Natya Utsav—a melange of readings, campus tours and talks with a line-up including popular as well as experimental Marathi plays, along with the premiere of the winning play of Darpan, a Marathi writing initiative launched by the NCPA.

A scene from the play O Womaniya to be staged at the Vasant Gujarati Natya Utsav

The iconic Tata Theatre will turn into a haven for jazz enthusiasts in April. International Jazz Day promises to be a dazzling evening of music. Curated by jazz veteran Louis Banks, the concert will feature some of the finest musicians and singers in the country performing classics as well as fusion.

All that jazz leads us to the return of a crowd favourite. Colombian Jazz Pianist Jesús Molina is all set to perform this June. Bringing a fresh sound to jazz, his unique style is a mix of timba, salsa, Latin jazz and pop. His India debut in a packed hall at the NCPA last year was met with roaring applause. The music doesn’t stop here. Shortly afterwards in July, seven-time Grammy award winning trumpeter Randy Brecker and drummer Peter Erskine, with two Grammys to his name, will arrive at the NCPA. The British pop band Matt Bianco and a star-studded International Jazz Festival complete the line-up for 2025.

Jesús Molina (Photo credit: Narendra Dangiya)

Speaking about the recently concluded season of the Symphony Orchestra of India, Mr. Suntook adds, “Two distinguished conductors, Maestro Zubin Mehta and Sir Mark Elder, led the SOI in its 34th season. Singers from prestigious opera houses such as La Scala and the Met performed excerpts from Carmen and La Traviata, to great acclaim by our music-loving audience. Eminent guests from the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, BBC Symphony Orchestra and renowned corporate leaders were present during the season to witness the phenomenal growth of our orchestra in a relatively short period of time.”

Come June, audiences will be treated to a delightful concert where conductor Maria Badstue will lead the SOI Chamber Orchestra, along with the Royal Danish Academy of Music, Copenhagen and the Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus. Twenty wind and brass players will join the orchestra for a performance featuring works by Rachmaninoff, Neilsen and Sibelius.

In addition to bringing the best to the audiences, the NCPA recently hosted the Art of the Possible Symposium, a platform created to reimagine production arts in India. Supported by the British Council and Godrej Agrovet, the symposium brought together professionals, creatives and experts while featuring speakers from The National Theatre UK’s Skills Development Centre, Tait, global live event specialists behind Coldplay’s India concerts and Haworth Tompkins, renowned architects shaping the next generation of performance spaces.

A panel discussion at the Art of the Possible symposium

The NCPA is committed to passing on the gift of the arts to future generations. For over 10 years, the NCPA Summer Fiesta has been treating Mumbai’s young minds during the summer break to workshops, plays, screenings and more. Tinkle, National Theatre Live, Sanctuary Asia and the Metropolitan Opera have been our partners, helping us create experiences that build confidence and encourage self-expression among participants.

While the tepid April breeze heralds a pause in the academic rigour at school, it is also when bright young graduates take the stage for the annual concert of the SOI Music Academy at the NCPA. For the first time, students from Pune, Goa and Kerala will join the SOI Academy Orchestra, under the direction of SOI Music Director Marat Bisengaliev and rigorous training by the teachers at the academy. Started in 2012, the academy has been imparting conservatoire-level music education, which was previously unheard of in the country.

Now in its sophomore edition, Spring Board will provide a platform for up-and-coming musicians and catapult two young bands into the world of live performance this Apr.

Students of the SOI Music Academy take a bow after their annual concert in 2024 (Photo credit: Narendra) Dangiya/NCPA)