The Orchestra Man

The September concert season of Mumbai's National Centre for Performing Arts and Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI), opened last Thursday, this time commemorating 60 years of Indo-German diplomacy. The repertoire features great German masters such as Ludwig Van Beethoven, Richard Wagner and Gustav Mahler. Noted German conductor Christopher Poppen and Zane Dalal will conduct the performances, which will also feature violinist Lena Neudauer and baritone Anooshah Golesorkhi.

Founded in 2006, the SOI has been India's first professional symphony orchestra. And since the year of its inception, Dalal has been the organisation's resident conductor. The presence of just eight Indians in a nearly 100-piece orchestra, he says, is driven by sheer professionalism. "We can only take people who are good enough, and very few made the cut," he says.

Dalal gives a brief talk as a prelude to every performance of SOI. It enriches the experience, he says, apart from helping the audience lesser accustomed to western classical music.

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