Striking high notes

Kovacevich,known for his fine interpretations of Beethoven,will perform Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4. Evgeny Bushkov,a renowned conductor and lecturer,will conduct pieces by Bizet,Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky. Each orchestral concert of the season will be preceded by a pre-concert talk by Dalal. He had earlier presented NCPA Chalk Talk sessions “On Conducting”,giving the audience a historical overview and personal perspectives and “On Beethoven”.

Kovacevich,for his part,is excited to perform in Mumbai. He says,“I am happy and interested to be a part of SOI. I saw one of their videos and loved it. I like to experiment. The classics have so many levels that there is always room for innovation.”

One of the major highlights of the 10th season of SOI,which was held earlier this year was a performance by 238 children,who were trained under the Suzuki method by the NCPA and played the violin,along with renowned virtuoso Dmitry Sitkovetsky and Marat Bisengaliev,SOI’s music director. Taking this tradition forward,Dalal explains that the NCPA is focussing on the education of children in Western classical music. He says,“We are in the process of starting a special school. We have a lot of musical talent all over India. We want to hone them in a methodical way thereby creating awareness. We plan to have a music school with our resident teachers where students will get professional music training at par with international standards. We want to have a group of local gifted people who can,in due course,with the right training,be a part of SOI and also perform internationally.”

The SOI,which made its international debut in Moscow last year,also has plans to tour extensively and has had invitations from Thailand,Australia,Muscat and China. Apart from that,Dalal says plans are underway to record at a high international standard. “ We can make a serious contribution to society,and edify the community with our efforts,if we keep at it without compromising standards.”