It is Ramiro Arista's first visit to India. Seated at the lobby of an art deco hotel in Churchgate where he's staying, he tells me that he feels at home, exactly like in Latin America. Then, he explains why. "Mumbai is a lot like São Salvador da Bahia. Here, 'Bom Bahia' means a good place for the ships to come, and Salvador in the north of Brazil is similar — for instance, this idea of old buildings in a road lined with trees."

His interest in geography is accompanied by an animated way of demonstrating every word and it's hard to dismiss him as just another conductor. The Argentine has worked with over 70 orchestras across the globe, including Ukraine's Transcarpathian Regional Philharmonic and Russia's Saint Petersburg Philharmonic. He approached the Bombay Chamber Orchestra (BCO) a year ago, one of the few names he came across on his search for Indian orchestras. An admirer of BCO's founder nonagenarian, Jini Dinshaw, this evening, he will take the stage with them and noted violinist Nicolas Koeckert in a concert of romantic classics and Latin American rhythms including La Bamba and Libertango.