Zubin Mehta

Zubin Mehta was born in 1936 in Bombay, where he grew up in a musical family. After studying medicine for two semesters, he began concentrating totally on music and completed his conducting training at the Vienna Music Academy with Hans Swarowsky.

Zubin Mehta served as Music Director of the Montréal Symphony Orchestra (1961-1967) and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra (1962-1978). In 1969, he additionally became musical advisor to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, where he was appointed Chief Conductor in 1977 and in 1981 Music Director for Life. With this extraordinary ensemble, Zubin Mehta has given nearly 2,000 concerts on five continents. In 1978 he became Music Director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. His era there lasted 13 years making it the longest in the history of the orchestra. Since 1985, he has been Chief Conductor of the Maggio Musicale in Florence. In 1964, Zubin Mehta made his début as an operatic conductor in Montréal with “Tosca”; since then he has mounted the podium of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Vienna State Opera, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, La Scala Milan, the opera houses in Montréal, Chicago and Florence as well as the Salzburg Festival.

The list of Zubin Mehta’s accolades and awards is a long one. Among other commendations, he wears the “Nikisch Ring”, the ring of honor from the Vienna Philharmonic. He is an honorary citizen of Florence and Tel Aviv. In 1997 he was appointed an honorary member of the Vienna State Opera. In 1999 Zubin Mehta received the newly created Prize for Peace and Tolerance in the World, awarded by the United Nations from the hands of Lea Rabin.

From September of 1998 until 2006, Zubin Mehta was Bavarian General Music Director and thus Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera and the Bavarian State Orchestra. in January of 2004, the Munich Philharmonic made him the first Conductor Laureate in the history of the orchestra.