Zubin Mehta

Zubin Mehta is an Indian conductor of Western classical music. He is music director former of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO), and conductor emeritus of the Los Angeles Philharmonic (LA Phil). He was born on April 29, 1936. Zubin Mehta’s place of birth is Bombay, Bombay Presidency, British India (now Mumbai, Maharashtra). He belongs to the Parsi family, and his native language is Gujarati. He took his education at St. Mary’s School, Mumbai. Then he went on to study medicine at St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, after urging of his mother, as she wished him to take up a more respectable profession than music. He dropped out at age eighteen after two years to move to Vienna. He learned music under Hans Swarowsky at the state music academy. He remained for three years at the academy, and also studied the double bass, which he played in the Vienna Chamber Orchestra. In 1957, he graduated at age twenty-one with a diploma in conducting. His father, Mehli Mehta, was an Indian conductor and self-taught violinist, who founded & conducted the Bombay Symphony Orchestra and American Youth Symphony (conducted for 33 years). His mother’s name is Tehmina Daruvala.

He has a brother named Zarin Mehta, an Indian-Canadian arts executive. In 1958, he married a Canadian voice student, Carmen Lasky, and got divorced in 1964. They have a son, Mervon and a daughter, Zarina. In 1969, he married Nancy Kovack, a retired American film and television actress. he has also second daughter, Alexandra and son, Ori. Zubin Mehta entered the Liverpool International Conductor’s Competition with thousands contestants and got first prize. Then, he was a second place prize-winner at the Tanglewood Music Center in Massachusetts at the summer academy. During 1960 and 1961, he was substituted for celebrated maestros all over the world, and receiving high critical acclaim for most of those concerts. He became the chief conductor and music director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra with the help of Charles Munch from 1961 to 1967. The same position, he served for the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 1962 to 1978, which made him the first conductor who directed two major North American orchestras simultaneously. In 1964, he marked his debut as an Opera conductor with Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca in Montreal. The following year, he conducted Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Later, he was engaged to conduct opera in London, Vienna, Milan, and many other cities.

From 1978 to 1991, he was also music director & principal conductor of the New York Philharmonic until 1991. In 1977, he became the music director of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO). During his fifty years connection with the IPO, he conducted it in thousands of concerts in Israel and abroad. He left the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1978 to become music director for the New York Philharmonic (NYP), commencing a tenure lasting thirteen years. He became the chief conductor of the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence from 1985 to 2017. He continued conducting performances at the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra’s gala concert in 2021. Zubin Mehta published his autobiography titled “Zubin Mehta: The Score of My Life” in 2009. He earned several international awards and honours, including the Padma Bhushan (1966), the Padma Vibhushan (2001), the Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime achievement in the arts (2006), the Tagore Award for his contribution towards cultural harmony (2013), the fifth Teddy Kooek Award for the Advancement of Jewish Culture (2020), etc.