ARTS AND CULTURE

Zubin Mehta

Conductor

Legendary Indian conductor Zubin Mehta first learned about music from his father, Mehli, a noted concert violinist and the founder of the Bombay Symphony Orchestra. The Mumbai-born Mehta, a member of India's Parsee community, has enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship with Israeli musicians, having performed regularly in the Jewish state since the early 1960s, and then becoming the music director of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in 1977. Mehta has often spoken of his "deep kinship" with Israel's musicians as well as the "spirit and tradition of the Jewish people." In 2005, he co-founded the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music at Tel Aviv University. Some 200 concerts, lectures and master classes are held annually at the school, which has become the leading music institution in Israel. (Photo: Flickr.)