Zubin Mehta
ZUBIN MEHTA was born in Bombay in 1936. After two terms of studying medicine, he fully concentrated on music and completed his conducting studies at the Wiener Musikakademie with Hans Swarowsky. Already in 1961 he had conducted the Wiener and the Berliner Philharmoniker as well as the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra; he celebrated 50 years of joint musical collaboration with all three orchestras.
Zubin Mehta was Music Director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra (1961-1967) and the Los Angeles Philharmonic (1962-1978). In 1969 he became music consultant of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, where he was appointed principal conductor in 1977 and Music Director for life. In 1978 he became Music Director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, since 1985 he has been principal conductor of the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence. In 1963, Zubin Mehta made his debut as opera conductor in Montreal with Tosca; since then he has conducted at the Met, the London ROH Covent Garden, La Scala and other important opera houses.