Zubin Mehta

Mehta was born into a Parsi family in Bombay (now Mumbai), India, during the British Raj, the older son of Mehli (1908–2002) and Tehmina (Daruvala) Mehta. His native language is Gujarati. His father was a self-taught violinist who founded and conducted the Bombay Symphony Orchestra and later the American Youth Symphony, which he conducted for 33 years after moving to Los Angeles. His father had previously lived in New York to study with violinist Ivan Galamian, a noted teacher who also taught Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman. His father returned to Bombay as an accomplished violinist of the Russian school. Mehta has said that on many occasions when he conducts in the U.S., someone approaches him to say, "You don't know how much I loved your father!" Mehta was first taught to play violin and piano by his father. When he reached his early teens, his father allowed him to lead sectional rehearsals of the Bombay Symphony, and at sixteen, he was conducting the full orchestra during rehearsals. Mehta graduated from St. Mary's School, Mumbai and went on to study medicine at St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, at the urging of his mother, who wanted him to take up a profession more "respectable" than music. At that competition he attracted the notice of Charles Munch, then the conductor of the Boston Symphony, who later helped his career. In 1958, he boldly programmed an all-Schoenberg concert, which did so well that he accepted further bookings. That same year he also married a Canadian voice student, Carmen Lasky, whom he met in Vienna. ==Conducting career==

1960s During 1960 and 1961, Mehta was asked to substitute for celebrated maestros throughout the world, receiving high critical acclaim for most of those concerts. In 1961, he was named assistant conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic (LAP), although the orchestra's music director designate, Georg Solti, was not consulted on the appointment, and resigned in protest. The orchestra had been without a permanent conductor for four years when Mehta started directing it. In 1969 his schedule remained equally active. He was appointed IPO's music advisor in 1969, music director in 1977, and was made its music director for life in 1981. During his five-decade connection with the IPO, he has conducted it in thousands of concerts in Israel and abroad. Among the reasons he wanted to direct the NYP was that it allowed him to experiment with new ideas, such as taking the orchestra to Harlem. There, they played at the Abyssinian Baptist Church each year. Accompanying the orchestra with Mehta for various concerts were Isaac Stern, Itzhak Perlman, and Kathleen Battle. From 1998 until 2006, he was music director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. The Munich Philharmonic named him its Honorary Conductor. Since 2005, Mehta has been the main conductor of the Palau de les Arts, the new opera house of the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències in Valencia, Spain. While he was the conductor of the New York Philharmonic, Mehta commissioned Ravi Shankar's Concerto No. 2 for sitar and orchestra. Following New York performances, the concerto was later recorded with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. 1990s In 1998, he went to Munich where he began directing the Bavarian State Opera, because, he said, it provided "another panorama for me, to be involved in the running of an opera house". 2000s On 26 December 2005, the first anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami, Mehta and the Bavarian State Orchestra performed for the first time in Chennai (formerly Madras) at the Madras Music Academy. This tsunami memorial concert was organized by the German consulate in Chennai along with the Max-Mueller Bhavan/Goethe-Institut. 2006 was his last year with the Bavarian State Orchestra. 2010s In 2011, Mehta's performance with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra at The Proms in London was picketed and interrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters, which caused the BBC to halt the live radio relay of the concert, the first such incident in Proms history. In September 2013, Mehta appeared with the Bavarian State Orchestra at a special concert, Ehsaas e Kashmir, organized by the German Embassy in India, at Mughal Gardens, Srinagar. Mehta and the orchestra renounced their usual fees for this concert. In October 2015, he returned to Chennai to perform with the Australian World Orchestra (AWO) at the Madras Music Academy. In 2016, the Harbin Symphony Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra performed two concerts conducted by Mehta in the frame of 33rd Harbin Summer Music Festival at Harbin Concert Hall. In December 2016, the Israel Philharmonic announced that Mehta would conclude his tenure as music director in October 2019. He now has the title of music director emeritus of the Israel Philharmonic. In August 2022, Mehta conducted the Australian World Orchestra (AWO) in Sydney and Melbourne at Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House and Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne. He also conducted the AWO at the Edinburgh International Festival and the BBC Proms 2022. ==Personal life==

Attractive and charming with a flamboyant style, Mehta earned a reputation as a ladykiller and the nickname “Zubie Baby.” His first marriage was to Canadian soprano Carmen Lasky in 1958. They have a son, an executive director of performing arts for The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, and a daughter. In 1964 they divorced. Two years after the divorce, Lasky married Mehta's brother, Zarin Mehta, formerly the executive director of the New York Philharmonic. His second daughter was born in Los Angeles in 1967, the offspring of an affair he had between his marriages. In July 1969, Mehta married Nancy Kovack, an American former film and television actress. His second son was born in the 1990s as the result of an extra-marital affair in Israel during this second marriage. One of his close friends was Ravi Shankar, whom he first met in the 1960s when Mehta directed him with the Montreal Symphony. Their friendship continued after they were both living in Los Angeles and later in New York. "This was a wonderful period in my life and Zubin and I really had a great time." ==Honours and awards==

and First Lady Laura Bush stand with the Kennedy Center honourees in the Blue Room of the White House during a reception Sunday, 3 December 2006. From left, they are singer and songwriter Smokey Robinson; Andrew Lloyd Webber; country singer Dolly Parton; film director Steven Spielberg; and Zubin Mehta. • In 1965, he received an honorary doctorate from Sir George Williams University, which later became Concordia University. • Mehta's name is mentioned in the song Billy the Mountain on the 1972 album Just Another Band from L.A. by Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention. Cellist Kurt Reher, who played when Mehta conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic, was also a guest musician with The Mothers of Invention. • At the Israel Prize ceremony in 1991, Mehta was awarded a special prize in recognition of his unique devotion to Israel and to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1995, he became a Laureate of the Wolf Prize in Arts. In 1999, Mehta was presented the "Lifetime Achievement Peace and Tolerance Award" of the United Nations. In 2022 he was awarded President's Medal by the Israeli President Shimon Peres. • The Government of India honoured Mehta in 1966 with India's third-highest civilian award, the Padma Bhushan and in 2001 with second-highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan. • In September 2006, the Kennedy Center announced Mehta as one of the recipients of that year's Kennedy Center Honors, presented on 3 December 2006. • In February 2007, Mehta was the recipient of the Second Annual Bridgebuilder Award at Loyola Marymount University. • Mehta is an honorary citizen of Florence and Tel Aviv. He was made an honorary member of the Vienna State Opera in 1997. In 2001 he was bestowed the title of "Honorary Conductor" of the Vienna Philharmonic and in 2004 the Munich Philharmonic awarded him the same title, as did the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in 2006. At the end of his tenure with the Bavarian State Opera, he was named Honorary Conductor of the Bavarian State Orchestra and Honorary Member of the Bavarian State Opera, and the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, Wien, appointed him an honorary member in November 2007. • Also in 2007 Mehta received the prestigious Dan David Prize. Conductor Karl Böhm awarded Mehta the Nikisch Ring – the Vienna Philharmonic Ring of Honor. • In October 2008, Mehta received the Praemium Imperiale (World Culture Prize in Memory of His Imperial Highness Prince Takamatsu), Japan. • In March 2011, Mehta received the 2,434th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In October 2011 he received the Echo Klassik in Berlin, for his life's work. • In September 2013, President of India Pranab Mukherjee awarded him the Tagore Award 2013 for his outstanding contribution towards cultural harmony. • In February 2019, the Berlin Philharmonic made Mehta an honorary member as an expression of gratitude for their long association. • In September 2019, President of Slovenia Borut Pahor conferred the Golden Order of Merit on Zubin Mehta for his contribution to music and the inspiring effort to connect people and nations with this form of art. • In November 2020, the World Jewish Congress presented Mehta with their fifth Teddy Kollek Award for the Advancement of Jewish Culture. • In September 2022, was appointed an Honorary Companion of the Order of Australia by the governor-general of Australia David Hurley in recognition of his eminent service to the Australia-India bilateral relationship and humanity-at-large, particularly in the fields of classical music and philanthropy. ==Films==

Mehta's life was documented in Terry Sanders's film Portrait of Zubin Mehta (1968). Another documentary about Mehta titled, Zubin and I, was produced by the grandson of an Israeli harpist who played with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra before Mehta assumed the helm. The filmmaker joins the orchestra on a tour of Mumbai and meets with him for two interviews, in India and Tel Aviv. In Christopher Nupen's 1969 documentary The Trout about a performance of Schubert's Trout Quintet in London by Jacqueline du Pré, Daniel Barenboim, Pinchas Zukerman, Itzhak Perlman, and Mehta; he plays the double bass. Mehta and the Los Angeles Philharmonic are featured in Allan Miller's 1973 film The Bolero. Mehta was also mentioned in the novel Master of the Game (1982) by Sidney Sheldon. Mehta has played himself as the pivotal figure in On Wings of Fire, a 1986 film about the history of Zoroastrianism and prophet Zarathushtra. Zubin Mehta: In Rehearsal (1996) depicts Mehta rehearsing ''Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks'' with the Israel Philharmonic. Mehta and his orchestra stars in the 2017 Spanish film documentary Dancing Beethoven, which tells the preparation of the Ninth Symphony. The film was nominated in the 32nd Goya Awards for Best Documentary Film and in the XXIII Premio Cinematográfico José María Forqué. A 2008 release by Unitel Classica/Medici Arts presents Mehta and the Los Angeles Philharmonic in performances of the Bassoon Concerto by Mozart, the Concerto for Orchestra by Bartók, and three pieces of Dvořák, including his 8th Symphony. These were filmed in January 1977. ==Educational projects==

In 2009, Mehta established Mifneh (Hebrew for "change"), a music education program for Israeli Arabs, in cooperation with Bank Leumi and the Arab Israel Bank. Three schools, in Shfaram, the Jezreel Valley, and Nazareth, are taking part in the pilot project. He and his brother Zarin constitute the Advisor Council of the Mehli Mehta Foundation. In 2005, Mehta and philanthropist Josef Buchmann founded the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music as a partnership between Tel Aviv University and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Mehta is the school's honorary president and has remained actively involved since its inception. ==References==