The Symphony Orchestra of India
“India’s first professional orchestra makes international debut”
– The Hindu
“A first-rate Performance!”
—The Moscow Times
In August 2006, the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), Mumbai, formed The Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI), the country's first fully professional symphony orchestra, offering a series of concerts in Mumbai over the course of two seasons each year, in September and February. The orchestra has also begun to tour nationally and to take music into communities in order to enthuse new and young audiences around India.
The SOI was formed in 2006 as the result of an on-going collaboration between Khushroo N Suntook, Chairman of the NCPA, and the internationally acclaimed Kazakh violinist, Marat Bisengaliev, who serves as the orchestra's Music Director. Players are recruited internationally, including Resident Conductor, Zane Dalal, plus a core of instrumentalists drawn from the West Kazakhstan Philharmonic Orchestra. Many of the principal players are also teachers, and the orchestra places great emphasis on developing musical potential within India.
The orchestra's Indian players represent the finest local musical talent, and their presence in the SOI provides a solid foundation for the future of orchestral playing in India. The orchestra has launched a number of initiatives to build on this local talent, including the introduction of the Suzuki Method of instrumental teaching into schools in Mumbai.
The Orchestra has worked with internationally renowned soloists, including Michael Collins, Raphael Wallfisch, John Lenehan and Andrei Gavrilov. It has also collaborated with eminent conductors including Adrian Leaper and Alexander Annisimov. In the last Seven Seasons, the SOI presented great masterworks including Strauss’ Don Juan and Stravinski’s Firebell Suite and the Beethoven: symphony No. 9 in D-minor showcasing the virtuosity of the Orchestra. The NCPA and the SOI have also presented large-scale productions including Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and Karl Jenkins’s Adiemus: Songs of Sanctuary.
On June 11, 2010, the SOI made history, as it became India’s first fully professional orchestra to go international. It played at the Fifth Festival of the World’s Symphony Orchestras in Moscow. They played on the concluding night, as part of the Grand Finale, in the presence of the highest echelons of Russian society.
Besides presenting orchestral and chamber music concerts, the SOI is available as a professional accompanying ensemble for soloists as well as for ballets, operas and musicals. It will also offer its services internationally as a resource for making recordings.
Click this link to see the September 2011 Celebrity (11th) Season Programme.
SOI's 12th Celebrity Season has just been annouced. Click here for more!
Visit the SOI website at: www.soimumbai.com.
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