ON Stage is the cultural magazine of the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), Mumbai, and features authoritative stories on the performing arts.
Opinion
Until the Coronavirus got its vicious spikes all over it, 2020 was meant to be Beethoven’s year. He was born on 17th December 1770 in Bonn. (In Vienna, where he spent most of his adult life and died in 1827, they regard 16th December as his birthday). In either
Interviews
As countries gradually lift restrictions, it has become easier to believe that the enriching experience of attending a live concert is not a distant reality. Gauthier Herrmann, who founded the Artie’s Festival in collaboration with the NCPA, tells us how his chamber music ensemble has been adapting to the
Interviews
From Saint-Saëns playing its Grand Organ within months of its opening to it being home to the BBC Proms, from its glazed iron roof to the mosaic frieze, the Royal Albert Hall is as iconic for its structure as it is for the formidable list of names that have performed
News
Through the coming together of art and technology under expert guidance, the NCPA is preparing to take India’s cultural heritage beyond its theatres. Chairman Khushroo N. Suntook on adapting to extraordinary times. Since the lockdown in mid-March, the NCPA has been engaged in utilising the time to first reschedule
Know Your Composer
Historically, the works of many women composers did not quite make it into the canon. It is perhaps why the female sensibility continues to be viewed through a celebratory lens – like a rare event, so to say. We take a look at some of these prolific composers who did not
Know Your Composer
Cited as the first composer to rethink every parameter of his music, Franz Liszt was an inveterate boundary-pusher, as eccentric as he was prolific, and without a doubt, the prototype of the modern-day rock star. By Manohar Parnerkar Franz Liszt, the 19th-century Hungarian-born composer, pianist and conductor, will always remain
News
The pause on live performances at the NCPA has been a period of brainstorming that has resulted in innovative online offerings, and the creation of a strategy for times beyond the lockdown that celebrates the live medium and widens its reach digitally. By Snigdha Hasan The beginning of March at
Features
In moments of social confinement, art, once again, is man’s companion, like it has been in war and peace, sickness and health. By Snigdha Hasan It is the fifth month of the year, and in a parallel, Corona-free world, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra would have been neck-deep in rehearsal
Throwback Thursday
Two stellar pianists, cognoscenti may seldom hear under one roof, were brought together as part of the latest SOI season. Vastly different in their musicality, they share in common what ties together all great artistes. By Jehangir Batiwala The SOI Spring 2020 Season was unique, as audiences in Mumbai got
News
In the absence of classroom lessons, the SOI Music Academy shifts gears and switches to online teaching, bringing together musicians and students under one virtual roof. “I cannot remember having seen such unusually prolonged, testing times for so many countries, including India, where I work, and France, where I have
Music Education
The Resident Conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of India, Mikel Toms, takes a moment out of rehearsals to consider the point of it all, as he asks and answers an important question: why do we rehearse at all? For years, I have been fascinated by the etymology of the word
News
Standing ovations, encores and a growing realisation of the hunger for Western classical music in the country were all part of the resounding success of the SOI’s recent tour to Delhi and Bengaluru. Hot on the heels of a very successful Spring 2020 Season, the Symphony Orchestra of India