We must look beyond our nose

Mumbai has always been a melting pot of culture. Whether it’s a dance troupe from Assam, an opera from Italy or a jazz quintet from the US, performing arts from any part of the world have all found an audience in this city.

Western classical music in particular has a long-standing tradition in Mumbai going back to the 1920s. And as the importance of Mumbai grew with the advent of globalisation, there was a need to tune the city to global cultural trends.

With the formation of the Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI) in August 2006, Mumbai joined the ranks of major international cities that support a professional performing ensemble. Beyond providing the Mumbai audiences with a chance to listen to good western classical music, the idea was to also expose them to a genre of music that’s played all over the world, so they feel right at home when they are travelling abroad.

From a slim attendance of 500 in 2006, we have seen the SOI season run into full houses over the last two seasons. Our western music lecture series and pre-concert talks have also seen music lovers crowding our theatres.

How Indian is it?
One question we are frequently asked is about the number of Indians in the SOI, which requires some clarification.
Everywhere in the world children are taught a variety of subjects from the arts, sciences etc. Then later on in the curriculum, subjects undergo specialization and require deep study and tremendous dedication.

Similarly, we need specialists to play professional music. Just as lawyers go to law school and surgeons go to medical school — we cannot specialise at the level we would like without the presence of fine, well-established music conservatories. Just as one would hope not to enlist the services of unqualified surgeons, one would not want to ‘operate’ on ‘classical masterworks’ without adequate specialists.

India has never really had western classical music conservatories, and therefore musicians/violinists in this country have undergone training under private teachers or have learnt the instruments themselves. Until we fix this root issue over the long term, we should not assemble Indian faces for a photo op — which demeans the fine work that our current Indian musicians are doing, and devalues our general efforts to provide a hallmark of excellence across the board at the NCPA. 

One of the biggest challenges, Marat Bisengaliev, SOI’s music director, and I faced while forming the orchestra was in scouting for good western classical musicians -violinists, cellists, viola players, bassists etc. The quality was not up to international standards. So we decided to formulate a policy of excellence. The only criterion for admission into the orchestra would be the quality of playing. The nationality would not compensate for bad playing.

Think global
We have undergone two rounds of auditions for musicians and today, one-fifth of the SOI consists of Indian players who undergo 8-hour practice sessions every day. These are professional musicians who are given monthly remuneration and arrangements for lodging and boarding at the NCPA. We also decided to supplement this by starting the Suzuki project, which is a Japanese method of teaching kids as young as four years old to play the violin.

Beyond that, we need support from the government to introduce music education in the existing curriculum and establish quality music schools. Until India provides conservatories for studying music, we will not be able to produce musicians who will play at an international level. The Indian musicians we have in the orchestra are talented and self-taught, but have not had musical training such as in the conservatories. At the NCPA, we have tried to create an atmosphere of a conservatory where our musicians practise rigorously every day.

By the same respect, a debate on the growing popularity of western classical music in the face of our great tradition of Indian classical music rules many of our conversations. We believe that in spite of the deep presence of Indian classical music in our lives, the art music of Europe will become significant in our country. When business can span the globe, there should be no reason as to why culture should be a limited field. If Mumbai is to have a position as a cultural capital, it must offer to its citizens all that they can possibly need and want. Along with the best infrastructure, they would also expect the best cultural elements on a global level. We must learn to look beyond our nose.