Zubin Mehta - Honorary Life Conductor
Born in Bombay in 1936, he received his early musical education from his father, Mehli Mehta, an esteemed violinist and founder of the Bombay Symphony Orchestra. After a short period of preparatory studies in medicine, in 1954 he went to Vienna where he attended Hans Swarowsky’s conducting courses at the Akaydemie für Musik. In 1958 he won the Liverpool International Conducting Competition and the Tanglewood Summer Academy Award; since 1961 he has been called to conduct the Wiener and the Berliner Philarmoniker and the Israel Philharmonic, orchestras with which he boasts over 50 years of collaboration. Music Director of the Montreal Symphony (1961-1967) and of the Los Angeles Philharmonic (1962-1978), he was nominated, in 1977, Music Director of the Israel Philharmonic, of which he became, since 1981, Music Director for life: in October 2019 leaves the leadership after more than 50 years and he is appointed Director Emeritus. In 1978 and for 13 years, the longest period in the history of the orchestra, Zubin Mehta became Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, while from 1985 to 2017 he was appointed Principal Conductor of the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, of which he is currently Honorary Director for life.
He made his opera debut with Tosca in Montreal in 1963 and since then he has collaborated with the major opera houses and festivals in the world, including the Metropolitan of New York, the Wienerstaatsoper, the Covent Garden of London, the Teatro alla Scala of Milan, the Chicago Opera House, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and the Salzburg Festival. Between 1998 and 2006 he has hold the role of Music Director of the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich. In October 2006 he inaugurates the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia and he is President of the Festival del Mediterrani: in the Spanish city and in Florence, he conducts a memorable Der Ring des Nibelungen with the Fura dels Baus, followed by other new productions of the Wagnerian cycle at the Chicago Opera House and at the Bayerische Staatsoper. Among the prizes and honors received by Zubin Mehta, are to be remembered: the Nikisch-Ring left him by Karl Böhm; the honorary citizenships of Florence and Tel Aviv and the appointments as Honorary member of the Wienerstaatsoper (1997), of the Bayerische Staatsoper (2006) and the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde Wien (2007). He is also Honorary Director of the Wiener Philharmoniker (2001), the Munich Philharmonic (2004), the Los Angeles Philharmonic (2006), the Staatskapelle Berlin (2014) and the Bayerische Staatsorchester (2006), which he conducts in tour in Srinagar in Kashmir, and of the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples (2016), as well as Director Emeritus of the Los Angeles Philharmonic (2019).
In 2008 he received the “Praemium Imperiale” from the Japanese imperial family; in 2011 his name was inscribed on the Walk of Fame on the Hollywood Boulevard; in 2012 he obtained the Cross of Merit of the German Federal Republic, while in 2013 the Indian government awarded him the Tagore Award for cultural harmony.
Zubin Mehta encourages the discovery and promotion of new musical talents all over the world: together with his brother Zarin, he is co-president of the Mehli Mehta Music Foundation in Bombay, thanks to which more than 200 children are educated in western classical music; similarly, the Buchmann-Mehta music school in Tel Aviv gives young musicians the opportunity to grow, in close relationship with the Israel Philharmonic, as a new project for teaching young Arab-Israelis in the cities of Shwaram and Nazareth with local teachers and members of the Israel Philharmonic. Recently he has conducted at the Teatro del Maggio in Florence numerous symphonic concerts and the operas Otello by Giuseppe Verdi, Così fan tutte by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Tosca in a concert form and La forza del destino by Giuseppe Verdi (many of them were also broadcasted in streaming).
Recent tours at the Salzburg Festival with the Maggio ensembles for a symphonic concert and Tosca in concert form; and for concerts in Athens and Dubai for EXPO 2020.
Most recently he was nominated as Florence Ambassador for Culture and a European tour in Hamburg, Linz, Vienna, Luxembourg City, Muri and Dortmund with the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra. He opens the hall dedicated to him in the new Auditorium of the Teatro del Maggio with two concerts. In July 2022 he conducted the Orchestra and the Choir of the Maggio in the Concerto for Florence in the Cavea of the Teatro del Maggio and on tour in Piazza del Campo in Siena, Ravello, Rimini, Macerata and Marbella. Most recently, at the Maggio, Il trovatore, La traviata, Carmen and some concerts.
He recently toured with the Maggio Orchestra and Chorus in Bucharest (for Verdi's Otello and a concert), where he was awarded the highest honour of the Romanian government, and in Bangkok for a concert.