Excelsior!

 

NCPA Chairman Khushroo Suntook converses brimming with fervor and joy as the blooming SOI prepares for its spring concert in February

- Sriram Ravishankar

Until the birth of the Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI), India probably never had a symphonic orchestra that was the country’s official western musical identity. Many broken or amateur chamber orchestras maybe like the Bombay Symphony Orchestra that gathered local hotel musicians or the Calcutta Symphony Orchestra, but none that were a complete professional body. The SOI based at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), Mumbai, when founded in 2006 by Khushroo Suntook and internationally-renowned violin virtuoso Marat Bisengaliev, was received with much skepticism. Very little did anybody anticipate the generous trajectory that the orchestra underwent in just over a decade. Suntook’s infectious passion for western classical music, his cultural roots and upbringing, the wealth of knowledge and experience he had accumulated after heading Bisleri and Lakme for Tata, and the juxtaposition of opportunities perhaps gave way to the first official symphony orchestra, a prolific milestone in the country’s cultural history. The stellar team of visionaries with Suntook like Bisengaliev, Associate Music Director Zane Dalal, Resident Conductor Evgeny Bushkov, the management at NCPA, and an ever-loving Mumbai audience, have collectively contributed to SOI’s enviable success.