Zubin Mehta

Zubin Mehta was born on April 29, 1936, in Bombay, India, into a Parsi family steeped in Western classical music.[1] His father, Mehli Nowrowji Mehta, was a concert violinist and conductor who founded or co-founded the Bombay Symphony Orchestra, and the household in which Zubin grew up was thoroughly musical.[1][2] He studied violin and piano from an early age and was conducting orchestra rehearsals and concerto accompaniments by the time he was sixteen.[1]

Despite this early experience, Mehta initially enrolled in pre-medical studies at St. Xavier's College in Bombay.[1] At eighteen, however, he abandoned medicine in favor of music and traveled to Vienna in 1954, entering the conducting program at the Akademie für Musik under Hans Swarowsky.[1][2] There he also studied double bass with Otto Rühm.[1] He further developed his craft at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, studying under Carlo Zecchi and Alceo Galliera.[1]

In 1957 Mehta made his professional conducting debut with the Niederösterreichisches Tonkünstlerorchester in Vienna.[1] The following year he won first place at the Liverpool International Conductors' Competition, whose prize included a season as assistant conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic.[1][2] He was also a prize-winner at the summer academy at Tanglewood.[2] By 1961 he had conducted the Vienna, Berlin, and Israel Philharmonic Orchestras.[2]

Mehta made his North American conducting debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1960.[1] In 1961 he became associate conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and music director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, a post he held through 1967.[1][2] Sources date his Montreal opera-conducting debut with Puccini's Tosca to either 1963 or 1964.[1][2]

In 1962, at twenty-six years old, Mehta was appointed music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, making him at the time the youngest conductor of a major American orchestra.[1] He held that post until 1978, during which the ensemble increased its visibility and international profile.[1][2] He became music director of the New York Philharmonic in 1978.[1]

At the New York Philharmonic, Mehta conducted more than 1,000 concerts during what the orchestra described as the longest music-director tenure in its history.[1][2] Sources give the end of that tenure as either 1990 or 1991. During this period he also conducted opera at institutions including the Metropolitan Opera, Vienna State Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, La Scala, and opera houses in Chicago and Florence, as well as at the Salzburg Festival.[2]

Later in his career, Mehta added two further major institutional positions. From 1985 to 2017 he served as chief conductor of the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, and from 1998 to 2006 he was music director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich.[2]

Mehta first conducted the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in 1961, when he was twenty-five years old.[3] After being invited back in 1966, he returned to conduct it nearly every year thereafter.[3] Encyclopedia.com entries differ on whether he became the orchestra's music adviser in 1968 or 1969.[1] He became music director in 1977 and was appointed music director for life in 1981.[4]

An Israeli government cultural profile describes the association as his longest and most productive professional relationship.[4] The orchestra's official biography, as quoted by The Times of Israel, states that Mehta conducted more than 3,000 concerts with the ensemble on tours spanning five continents, including Europe, North and South America, the Far East, and India.[3] An older Encyclopedia.com account gives the lower figure of more than 1,500 concerts.[1]

His farewell as music director took place in Tel Aviv in October 2019, concluding an association described by the World Jewish Congress as fifty years of service in that role.[2] The program included Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 2 and Mahler's Symphony No. 2, the "Resurrection."[3] During the intermission, Mehta told the audience: "From my heart, what this orchestra has given me—not only this one but all the generations before them. I cannot begin to even describe what I have learned with these musicians."[3] The orchestra named him Conductor Emeritus.[2]

Even after stepping down, Mehta maintained his ties to the orchestra. Between February 21 and March 5, 2024, he returned to Israel to conduct eight concerts in Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Jerusalem. The programs included works by Verdi, Dvořák, Mozart, and Bruckner, with guest appearances by soprano Zarina Abaeva and violinist Pinchas Zukerman.[5]

One of the most distinctive features of Mehta's connection to Israel has been his repeated choice to conduct there during periods of military conflict and national emergency.

In 1967, Mehta boarded one of the last flights to Israel before the Six-Day War began and later conducted the Israel Philharmonic in a victory concert with pianist Daniel Barenboim and cellist Jacqueline du Pré.[5] During the Yom Kippur War of 1973, he conducted concerts for Israel Defense Forces personnel.[5] In 1982 he took the orchestra to Lebanon, where it performed for Lebanese and Israeli audiences.[5] During the Iraqi missile attacks on Israel in 1991, he conducted morning concerts in accordance with wartime restrictions.[5]

In 1999 he conducted Israeli and German musicians near the site of the Buchenwald concentration camp in a program that included Mahler's "Resurrection" Symphony.[3] On June 20, 1994, during the siege of Sarajevo, he conducted a benefit from the burned-out shell of the city's National Library, with the performance broadcast internationally.[1]

In 2010 Mehta took the Israel Philharmonic to the Gaza border to make music and protest the abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit.[5] Together, these appearances made his connection to Israel visible through repeated public acts during crises.

Mehta also recalled a concert arranged by his longtime friend, Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek, approximately one year after the Six-Day War. With the consent of Bethlehem's mayor, Mehta and the orchestra performed in the square in front of the Church of the Nativity. He said of the occasion: "It was the first time that Jews, Arabs and Christians sat together for any event, it was a very moving occasion."[6]

Alongside his orchestral work, Mehta built a substantial career in opera. Sources date his Tosca debut in Montreal to either 1963 or 1964.[1][2] He subsequently conducted at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Vienna State Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, La Scala in Milan, and opera houses in Chicago and Florence, as well as at the Salzburg Festival.[2] His tenure as music director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich ran from 1998 to 2006.[2]

His thirty-two-year association with the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence ran from 1985 to 2017.[2] These engagements overlapped with his American and Israeli responsibilities and illustrate the geographic breadth of his conducting career.

In 1991 Mehta received the Israel Prize, the country's highest civilian honor, as a special award to a non-Israeli in recognition of his devotion to Israel and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.[7] The Jerusalem Post describes him as one of the few non-Israeli nationals to have received the prize.[7]

Mehta is an honorary citizen of Tel Aviv and Florence. The Vienna State Opera, Bavarian State Opera, and Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde Wien have granted him honorary membership.[2]

His international honors include the Praemium Imperiale from the Japanese Imperial Family in 2008, a star on Hollywood Boulevard in 2011, the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2012, and India's Tagore Award for Cultural Harmony in 2013.[2]

On November 9, 2020, during a virtual World Jewish Congress gala held under COVID-19 restrictions and timed to the anniversary of Kristallnacht, Mehta received the organization's fifth Teddy Kollek Award for the Advancement of Jewish Culture in his capacity as Music Director Emeritus of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.[6]

The Buchmann-Mehta School of Music in Tel Aviv develops young musical talent in Israel and is closely connected with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.[2] A related project extends music education to young Arab Israelis in Shfar'am and Nazareth, with instruction provided by local teachers and orchestra members.[2]

Mehta and his brother Zarin co-chair the Mehli Mehta Music Foundation in Mumbai, named for their father, where more than two hundred children receive education in Western classical music.[2] The institutions in Israel and India reflect two longstanding geographical centers of his life and work.

One reported example of Mehta's mentorship involved Israeli twin musicians Daniel and Alexander Gurfinkel. According to an account reproduced by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, he invited them to appear as soloists in the Israel Philharmonic's annual concert for young musicians when they were twelve.[8]

Mehta is a Parsi and a member of the Zoroastrian community descended from Persian migrants who settled in India centuries ago.[1] He is not Jewish, but his professional relationship with Israel began when he first conducted the Israel Philharmonic at age twenty-five.[3]

When asked to explain this affinity, he told the New York Times: "We are the Jews of India, the Persians who didn't mix. We enjoy the same minority complexes as the Israelis except we were not persecuted."[1] His comparison connected the Parsi experience of preserving a distinct identity within a majority culture with his identification with Israel and its Jewish population.

His wartime appearances—including his 1967 flight to Israel, concerts for soldiers during the Yom Kippur War, and performance at the Gaza border in support of Gilad Schalit—turned that affinity into repeated public acts of solidarity.[5]

Mehta's legacy rests partly on the length and range of his institutional appointments. He led the Montreal Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Bavarian State Opera, and Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, among other ensembles.[1][2] His thirteen-year New York Philharmonic tenure was described as the longest in that orchestra's history.[2]

His association with the Israel Philharmonic was still longer. The orchestra's official biography, as quoted by The Times of Israel, credits him with more than 3,000 concerts, while an older Encyclopedia.com account gives more than 1,500.[1][3] Although the available sources do not explain the difference, both figures document a relationship extending across decades of performances and international tours.

His educational legacy includes the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music in Tel Aviv and the Mehli Mehta Music Foundation in Mumbai.[2] Israel recognized his cultural contribution through the Israel Prize and honorary citizenship of Tel Aviv.[2][7]

At his 2019 farewell, the Israel Philharmonic named him Conductor Emeritus after what the World Jewish Congress described as fifty years of service as music director.[2] The title acknowledged a professional relationship shaped by wartime concerts, international tours, and a musical collaboration spanning much of his career.

Several episodes in Mehta's career have attracted controversy or involved disputed claims. On September 1, 2011, when the Israel Philharmonic under Mehta performed the first in a series of BBC concerts at London's Royal Albert Hall, several dozen Palestine Solidarity Campaign activists attempted to disrupt the performance by unfurling a banner and shouting from the audience.[9] Audience members booed and hissed at the demonstrators; BBC Radio 3 halted its live broadcast twice, and security personnel removed the protesters without force.[9] The Palestine Solidarity Campaign had urged the BBC to cancel the concert and made allegations about the orchestra's relationship with the Israeli military that were not independently established by the cited account.[9]

In January 2026, Mehta announced that he had canceled all his planned engagements in Israel for that year, citing his objection to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's handling of the Palestinian issue. He said that he could not separate music from politics and expressed hope that Netanyahu would be defeated at the next election.[7] The announcement was a public break from his long history of conducting in Israel during periods of crisis.

Sources also differ on several details of Mehta's institutional history. Encyclopedia.com entries give either 1968 or 1969 for his appointment as the Israel Philharmonic's music adviser and either 1990 or 1991 for the end of his New York Philharmonic tenure.[1] The available concert counts range from more than 1,500 in an older Encyclopedia.com account to more than 3,000 in the Israel Philharmonic biography quoted by The Times of Israel; the sources do not explain whether publication dates or counting methods account for the difference.[1][3]