The NCPA Audio & Film Archives
With almost 5,000 hours of audio recordings taken from live and studio performances, and 1,200 hours of film footage of musicians, the NCPA’s archive ranks among the world’s finest documentary resources for Indian music.
These archives play a central role in the NCPA’s objective to record and preserve for posterity the finest performances in classical and folk music traditions, which have been handed down through oral tradition by renowned teachers over generations.
To this end, the Recording Auditorium (now the NCPA’s Little Theatre) was inaugurated in December 1969. Recording began on 12 August 1970, when the late tabla maestro, Ahmed Jan Thirakwa Sahab – then already in his eighties – played an exquisite tabla solo and answered questions from Pandit Nikhil Ghosh about his gharana. This historic recording paved the way for a series of recordings in the coming years.
The NCPA Archive features most of the stalwarts of Hindustani and Carnatic music. There is also a series of unique recordings of Indian folk music groups captured in the field using a specially equipped van. The archive hosts a collection of rare 78rpm records which have been cleaned and restored by the NCPA , and there are recordings of live performances by visiting orchestras, chamber groups and solo recitalists.
Browse the online database of recordings held in the NCPA Archive.
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Audio Recordings
