NCPA announces 'ADD ART' festival to commemorate the 50th anniversary of its iconic legacy

To mark the prodigious milestone of 50 years, India’s Premier Cultural Institution, the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) announces its three-day multi-genre extravaganza, the ‘NCPA ADD ART FESTIVAL’. Starting from November 29, 2019, the NCPA ADD ART FESTIVAL will showcase performances across Theatre, Dance, Indian Music, Western Classical Music, Jazz, Stand-up acts, Screenings, Puppetry, Workshops and much more.

The festival will celebrate the glorious five decades of NCPA working towards preserving and promoting India’s rich and vibrant artistic heritage. Representing NCPA’s larger philosophy - Adding Art in Daily Lives, the festival will be a stepping stone to define NCPA’s initiatives in the field of art and culture for the next 50 years.

Commenting on this special occasion Mr. Khushroo N. Suntook, Chairman NCPA said, “We are proud to announce the NCPA ADD ART FESTIVAL celebrating the glorious 50 years of the NCPA. It has been a long and exciting journey for everyone who has been associated with us. The 50^th year milestone will serve as a direction for us to grow and be an integral part of the cultural life of not only Mumbai, but the whole nation. With our constant endeavor to project only the best performances across the country and internationally, NCPA is truly becoming a beacon of culture.”

The 3 day celebration will showcase NCPA as an interactive venue by encompassing performing arts from classical and folk to contemporary acts gathering a large pool of artists, spread across: Theatre, Music, Dance, Films, Visual Art, Food, Drama, Poetry, and Photography amongst others. From performances by a world class orchestra, jazz virtuoso, legends of Indian music and dance, theatre celebrities – to art installations, food gardens and busking on the periphery, the larger than life festival will allow the public to explore the NCPA as a philosophy and as a venue.

Here's a brief schedule of the event:

• November 28, 2019: The Symphony Orchestra of India will present a gala concert celebrating the launch of the NCPA Add Art Festival. Led by music director Marat Bisengaliev and associate music director Zane Dalal, the concert will also feature joint choirs from around India. The programme will include popular choral classics, waltzes by Johann Strauss—where the Orchestra will be joined by dancers from Kazakh State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet—and much more.
• November 29, 2019: Exhilarating performances by well-known artists like Mallika Sarabhai, Astad Deboo, Zakir Khan and Amit Tandon. The highlight of the day will be the India premiere of the 10 time Grammy award winner and 6 Time Billboard Award Winner Arturo Sandoval. 
• November 30, 2019: Special performance featuring the Students of the NCPA – SOI Music Academy & Indian Music. Further, the day will host an array of events like – Jam session with Arturo Sandoval featuring musicians from around India, Reading Performance in Marathi, Spoken Word by Kommune, and much more. The day will showcase a very unique act by Igudesman & Joo called “A little Nightmare Music” combining comedy with music. They have taken the world by storm with their hilarious theatrical shows accumulating over 45 million YouTube hits.
• December 1, 2019 (The final day of the festival): One-of-a-kind event “Morn to Dusk” – featuring performances by the legends of Indian Music and Dance like Rashid Khan, Zakir Hussain, Aditi Mangaldas, Malavika Sarukkai, Shiv Kumar Sharma, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Birju Maharaj, Ajoy Chakrabarty and many more. This all-day event will take place from 9 am to 9 pm. The day will also feature a new production of Sea Wall, by Simon Stephens, directed by Bruce Guthrie, Head of Theatre for the NCPA and performed by award-winning actor Jim Sarbh. The day will conclude with Roysten Abel’s ‘The Manganiyar Seduction’ - an internationally acclaimed audio-visual spectacle which brings together nearly 40 talented Manganiyar musicians, both vocalists and instrumentalists, in a truly magical setting.
  

ADD ART is an act, a philosophy, a way of rejigging our lives. It is the power of experiencing live performances. It is the moment we allow something that we’ve witnessed to expand our minds. It is the change in perception, whether inspired by a story, painting, performance, poetry, song, or dance. ADD ART is a timely reminder that we are all creative in some way and art is for everyone.

So, come ‘Experience It Live’ at the NCPA ADD ART festival.