Zubin Mehta

Zubin Mehta was born in 1936 in Bombay and received his first musical education under his father Mehli Mehta’s guidance, who was a noted concert violinist and the founder of the Bombay Symphony Orchestra. After a short period of pre-medical studies in Bombay, he left for Vienna in 1954 where he eventually entered the conducting programme under Hans Swarowsky at the Akademie für Musik. Mehta won the Liverpool International Conducting Competition in 1958 and was also a prize-winner of the summer academy at Tanglewood. By 1961, he had already conducted the Vienna, Berlin, and Israel Philharmonic Orchestras. Mehta was Music Director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra from 1961 to 1967 and assumed the Music Directorship of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in 1962, a post he retained until 1978. He made his debut as an opera conductor with Tosca in Montreal in 1963 and has since conducted at the Metropolitan Opera, the Vienna State Opera, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, La Scala Milano, and the opera houses of Chicago and Florence, as well as at the Salzburg Festival. In 1978 he took over the post as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, commencing a tenure lasting 13 years, the longest in the orchestra's history. Mehta has also held the post of Chief Conductor of the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence and Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. In 2006, he opened the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia and was the President of the annual Festival del Mediterrani in Valencia until 2014 where he conducted the celebrated Ring cycle with the Fura del Baus in coproduction with the Florence opera house. Other Ring cycles were completed at the Chicago Opera and the Bavarian State Opera. In 2019, he celebrated his farewell with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, where he served for 50 years. The maestro’s list of awards and honours is extensive and includes the ""Nikisch-Ring"" from Karl Böhm. The Teatro di San Carlo in Naples appointed Mehta as Honorary Music Director, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic honoured him as Conductor Emeritus and the Berliner Philharmoniker appointed him their Honorary Conductor. Mehta continues to support the discovery and furtherance of musical talents all over the world. Together with his brother Zarin, he is a Co-Chairman of the Mehli Mehta Music Foundation in Bombay where more than 200 children are educated in Western Classical Music. The Buchmann-Mehta School of Music in Tel Aviv develops young talent in Israel and is closely related to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, as is a new project of teaching young Arab Israelis in the cities of Shwaram and Nazareth, with local teachers and members of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.