About
Xerxes Unvala is an producer and arts manager with over seventeen years of international experience.
He is the founder and managing partner of Third Movement Arts, which produces and presents work across genres, with a focus on Western classical music, and provides strategic advisory and management services to arts organisations and cultural institutions. Current and recent projects have included work with the Mehli Mehta Music Foundation, South Asian Symphony Orchestra, Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra, and Zubin Mehta’s 90th birthday concerts with the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, Lang Lang, and Pinchas Zukerman, amongst others.
He is also part of the leadership team of Abbey 301, a new home for the arts in a 200-year-old deconsecrated chapel in the hills of Khandala.
Xerxes was previously the General Manager of the Symphony Orchestra of India and Western Classical programming at the National Centre for the Performing Arts, Mumbai, where he served for over a decade. In this role, he oversaw the planning and operations of India’s only full-time professional orchestra, housed at the country’s largest performing arts centre, including producing concerts, operas, and tours, as well as extensive education and outreach projects.
Prior to that, he worked at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C., in the Office of International Programming, where he was part of the core team producing large-scale, multi-genre international arts festivals including maximum INDIA and Nordic Cool 2013.
His first experience with arts management was with the Vail Series at his alma mater, Denison University, Granville, OH, where he gained experience in various facets of concert production and management, working with renowned artists including Yo-Yo Ma, Renée Fleming, and Emanuel Ax, amongst others.
Xerxes is a Global Fellow of the International Society for the Performing Arts (2022 & 2023). Outside the arts, his interests include photography, technology, cuisine, travel, and design.