Zubin Mehta

Originally, Zubin Mehta was going to research medicine, but then he decided to follow in his father's footsteps and be involved with music. His dad's name was Mehli Mehta, and he also played the violin. Zubin Mehta was educated by his father, who was the conductor of the Bombay Symphony Orchestra. Zubin Mehta was born in Bombay on April 29, 1936. He was in premusical school for a short period, then he got to start his career as a conductor. The first orchestras he conducted were the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras.

Publicity photo of Zubin Mehta and Isaac Stern for Stern's 60th birthday concert at Lincoln Center. PBS TV [Public Domain] via Wikimedia Commons

Zubin Mehta was the music director for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in 1962. In 1969 he was the music adviser for the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Then, in 1977 he became the musical director for the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1981, for the same orchestra, he was the permanent director. When he was with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra he toured five continents. In all the time he has conducted, he has conducted more than 2,000 concerts.

In 1978 Zubin Mehta began conducting the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, for 13 years, which is the longest run in the history of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Then after 1991, he went to the Bavarian State Opera. He was the musical director for that opera through 2006. While he was the music director, he conducted more than 400 performances. In 2006 Mehta received the "Kennedy Center Honor," which is an award for being one of the most entertaining people of the year. This award is given out on December 6 at the White House. During Mehta's career, he got four awards. One of those awards was the "Nikisch" award given by Karl Bohm, who is another conductor. Mehta also got two of the same awards with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. That award was the "Honorary Conductor" award. The third award was the "Kennedy Center Honor." He got this award on December 6, 2006. Then in 2008 he was honored by the Japanese Imperial family and got awarded the "Praemium Imperiale." In his whole career he worked with eight orchestras.

President George W. Bush and Mrs. Laura Bush stand with the Kennedy Center honorees in the Blue Room of the White House during a reception Sunday, December 3, 2006. White House photo by Eric Draper [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons

Zubin Mehta is my hero because of his effort to conduct all of the orchestras that he worked with. He also inspired a lot of people around the world to conduct or play any kind of music. In Bombay, he has his own music school called Buchmann-Mehta music school. I think that's cool because then kids can learn to be conductors or anything that involves music. I picked him because I like listening to orchestra, and because of all of the hard work he did by making so much good music and helping kids reach their dreams. That's why Zubin Mehta is my hero.