NCPA’s Band Baja Contest returns with its fourth edition to promote amateur bands that make use of Indian music, instruments or regional languages
National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA) leaves no stone unturned when it comes to promoting Indian music, instruments and musicians. One of its several initiatives is the Band Baja Contest, now into its fourth year and calling for entries for this year’s edition.
A one-of-a-kind contest
The contest is truly one of its kind as it not only promotes Indian music and instruments but also gives an opportunity to up-and-coming bands with an element of Indian music in them. “The contest’s goal is to provide a platform to promising bands in India to showcase their talent at NCPA,” statesDr. Suvarnalata Rao, Head Programming – Indian Music, NCPA.
The basic criteria for the contest states that the participating band should include at least one Indian instrument, an artist singing in a regional language or be a folk-based band. Any percussion or melody instrument (such as tabla, flute, violin, harmonium, etc.)used in Indian classical or folk music qualify as Indian instruments.
Understanding trends
“As an art centre of national eminence, we are always eager to understand the trends amongst the youth because they are the future,”shares Dr. Rao. She observes that a healthy and interesting mix of both Indian and western elements exist in today’s times, and the Band Baja Contest is all set to take this to the next level. “We've been able to give an opportunity to around 40-45 bands so far. Six of them have performed and opened for premium bands like Indian Ocean andPaponin the last three years,” she adds.
Winner takes it all
Winners of this year’s contest will get to perform at the NCPA Experimental Theatre along with a video recording of their performance at NCPA (a single edited track of their choice). A complimentary ticket will be given to each member of the winning bands for the One World Many Musics Festival along with the opportunity to meet the performing artists at the festival such as Shantanu Moitra, Ani Choying, Kaushiki Chakrabarty, among others.This will allow the winners to get on-the-spot feedbackfrom the established artists and even contact them for future career opportunities.
“One World Many Musics Festival (OWMM)is a platform that encourages and showcases experimental and new sounds that exist in our country and celebrate the artistic plurality,” explains Dr. Rao. The genre of music presented in OWMM and Band Baja Contest is similar—the difference is that artists presented in the OWMM festival are more established and the quality of performance is superior.
What you need to know:
To register a band, aspiring participants need to send the following to bandbajacontest@gmail.com
1. Band profile and photograph
2. MP3 audio tracks – live or studio recorded (YouTube & Sound Cloud links will also be accepted)
3. Contact information
4. Where exactly did they hear about Band Baja Contest
Entries for the contest will close on September 10, 2016. For more details, watch the contest video at www.facebook.com/NCPAMumbai/videos
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 "A snapshot from a previous edition of Band Baja Contest")
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