SOI: A decade of symphonies

Photos from SOI collaborating with Pt. Zakir Hussain in East meets West concert during Swiss tour earlier this year

Silence and anticipation hangs in the air as the Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI) takes the stage. Bows are poised over violins; fingers find the correct stops to flutes and poise at the ready over the piano. With one swish of the conductor’s baton, there’s magic. Whether they are playing Beethoven’s symphonies or collaborating with Bollywood singer, Arijit Singh (in July last year), the music created by the orchestra is mesmerising and, in India, completely unique. The month of September saw several concerts by India’s only symphony orchestra, which is commemorating ten years since their journey began in 2006.

Music director and violin virtuoso, Marat Bisengaliev, who had played with international orchestras like the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic and Mexico Symphony Orchestra, before joining SOI as its director, has been a part of the orchestra right from its genesis. “Khushroo Suntook, who founded the orchestra, was passing by the Saint James Church in Picadelly, London, where I had been playing with an orchestra and he came backstage and invited us to come to India. Our association continued and, a couple of years later, we conceived the idea for the orchestra over cups of tea at a hole-in-the-wall café in Picadelly,” he recalls.

Though the orchestra has now become a world-renowned group, respected in music capitals like Munich, Moscow and Vienna, the journey was not without its bumps. “Like most new ideas that have not been tried out, the first thing that people did when I proposed the idea was laugh,” says Suntook. “They said that we wouldn’t last a year and that we would get no audience in India. I am glad to have proved them wrong,” he adds.

For Suntook, who is a connoisseur in the arts and music fields, watching Marat play at Saint James, over a decade ago, opened up new avenues. “There is only one word for what I felt when I heard Marat perform and that’s wonderment. I had just gone there out of curiosity because a friend invited me but when I saw him perform, I knew I had to speak to him and get him to India,” Suntook reminisces.

Associate music director, Zane Dalal, however, had been much more sceptical than the founding duo, when he came to know about the orchestra. Dalal had carved a niche for himself in Los Angeles when his uncle told him about the orchestra and to give it a shot. “My whole life was in LA and I had no intention of moving anytime soon. Still, I thought I would see what all the fuss was about and I went to conduct the orchestra for 15 days on Suntook’s invitation. I conducted them in February, 2007 and ended up relocating as a permanent member in May,” he says with a laugh.

A constant criticism that the orchestra faced, right from its conception, was the fact that it did not have many Indian members. “Many who saw the SOI for the first time said ‘Where are all the Indians ’ I really think that this was quite stupid, since India has very few expert musicians in the Western tradition,” says Zane. “There is no post graduation programme for classical music in the country and what was more important to the orchestra than creating some sort of nationalistic character, was the quality of the sound. While India is rich in its own classical music, very few could have reached the level of performance that the international musicians had,” he adds.

Indian music buffs need not despair, though. Marat, Suntook and Zane have collaborated on a school, as a side project, where they have been teaching young, up-and-coming musicians. “I think that of all the projects that I have been a part of, there is nothing so satisfying as this,” says Marat. “Watching these young people shape up into musicians is a reward in itself. Quite a few of them have the potential to become talented musicians and maybe even join the orchestra, say, five years down the line,” he adds.

The school, however, is not the only thing that put Marat in a celebratory mood. The ten-year celebration of the orchestra has already seen the musicians collaborating with world-renowned music conductor, Martin Babbins, who was incidentally Marat’s best man at his wedding. “He is a great friend of mine whom I have not seen in years, so I have been looking forward to this reunion. Collaborating with him musically has always been a pleasure, as well,” says the excited violist. Aside from Babbins, the orchestra will also be performing with Kristof Barati, the youngest musician to have won the Queen Elisabeth competition. “He is a genius in his field and, at a very young age, has already made a mark in the music scene,” says Suntook.

The 10th anniversary season, will end in a grand gala on the September 30.