Mehli Mehta Music Foundation
The Commonwealth Youth Orchestra and Choir are proud, honoured and delighted that one of the greatest musicians of our time, Maestro Zubin Mehta, is its Music Patron.
Zubin Mehta was born in 1936 in Bombay and received his first musical education under his father’s Mehli Mehta’s guidance who was a noted concert violinist and the founder of the Bombay Symphony Orchestra. After a short period of pre-medical studies in Bombay, he left for Vienna in 1954 where he eventually entered the conducting programme under Hans Swarowsky at the Akademie für Musik. Zubin Mehta won the Liverpool International Conducting Competition in 1958 and was also a prize-winner of the summer academy at Tanglewood. By 1961 he had already conducted the Vienna, Berlin and Israel Philharmonic Orchestras and has recently celebrated 50 years of musical collaboration with all three ensembles.
Zubin Mehta was Music Director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra from 1961 to 1967 and also assumed the Music Directorship of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in 1962, a post he retained until 1978. In 1969 he was appointed Music Adviser to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and was made Music Director of that orchestra in 1977. In 1981 the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra awarded him the title of Music Director for life. Zubin Mehta has conducted over three thousand concerts with this extraordinary ensemble including tours spanning five continents. Zubin Mehta will end his tenure with the IPO 50 years after his debut in October 2019.
In 1978 he took over the post as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic commencing a tenure lasting 13 years, the longest in the orchestra's history. From 1985 to 2017 he has been chief conductor of the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence.
Zubin Mehta made his debut as an opera conductor with Tosca in Montreal in 1963. Since then he has conducted at the Metropolitan Opera New York, the Vienna State Opera, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, La Scala Milano, and the opera houses of Chicago and Florence as well as at the Salzburg Festival. Between 1998 and 2006 he was Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. In October 2006 he opened the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia and was the President of the annual Festival del Mediterrani in Valencia until June 2014 where he conducted the celebrated Ring cycle with the Fura del Baus in coproduction with the Florence opera house. Other Ring cycles were completed at the Chicago Opera and the Bavarian State Opera.
Zubin Mehta's list of awards and honours is extensive and includes the "Nikisch-Ring" bequeathed to him by Karl Böhm. He is an honorary citizen of both Florence and Tel Aviv and was made an honorary member of the Vienna State Opera in 1997, of the Bavarian State Opera in 2006 and of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde Wien in 2007. The title of “Honorary Conductor” was bestowed to him by the following orchestras: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (2001), Munich Philharmonic Orchestra (2004), Los Angeles Philharmonic (2006), Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (2006), Staatskapelle Berlin (2014) and Bavarian State Orchestra (2006), with whom he performed in Srinagar, Kashmir in September 2013. In 2016 the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples appointed Zubin Mehta as Honorary Music Director and the Los Angeles Philharmonic honoured him in 2019 as Conductor Emeritus.
In October 2008 Zubin Mehta was honoured by the Japanese Imperial Family with the “Praemium Imperiale”. In March 2011 Zubin Mehta received a special distinction, in getting a star on the Hollywood Boulevard. The Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany was bestowed to him in July 2012. The Indian Government honoured him in September 2013 with the “Tagore Award for cultural harmony” which a year earlier was awarded to Ravi Shankar.
Zubin Mehta continues to support the discovery and furtherance of musical talents all over the world. Together with his brother Zarin he is a co-chairman of the Mehli Mehta Music Foundation in Bombay where more than 200 children are educated in Western Classical Music. The Buchmann-Mehta School of Music in Tel Aviv develops young talent in Israel and is closely related to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, as is a new project of teaching young Arab Israelis in the cities of Shwaram and Nazareth with local teachers and members of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
Established in 1995, the Mehli Mehta Music Foundation (MMMF) is a not-for-profit organization that promotes western classical music through the presentation of high quality concerts and music education for children. The Foundation honours the late Mr. Mehli Mehta ( 1908 – 2002 ) , a conductor and violinist who lived in Bombay until 1954 before he emigrated to the UK and subsequently to the US, where he was conductor of the American Symphony for 33 years. Between 1930 and 1954 he mentored a whole generation of aspiring musicians in Bombay and was the Founder of the Bombay String Quartet and the Bombay Symphony Orchestra.
The MMMF’s mission is to create greater awareness and appreciation of western classical music, to share knowledge and understanding of this music, and make music education and the joy that comes with it, accessible t all.
The MMMF is dedicated to initiating, assisting and implementing the process of opening its doors and the doors of the city of Mumbai to the music of the world. The Foundation is most appreciative and deeply indebted to Zubin Mehta for his personal involvement in all aspects of the Foundation.
The Foundation has also raised the public profile of western classical music through its presentation of some renowned international orchestras, soloists and ensembles in Mumbai, and its annual Chamber Music Festival “Sangat“.
History and Milestones
MMMF takes pride in bringing internationally reputed western classical music artists to India. Over the last 20 years, the MMMF has exclusively presented high quality concerts, chamber music ensembles and solo recitals.
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra 1994, 2001, 2008, 2016
Australian World Orchestra 2015
Bavarian State Orchestra 2013
Maggio Musicale Fiorentino 2005, 2011
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras 2003, 2009
Die Deutsche Kammer Philharmonic Bremen 2004
USB Verbier Festival Youth Orchestra 2003
European Union Chamber Orchestra 1998
Munich Philharmonic Orchestra 1997
Sangat, the first ever chamber music festival initiated in Mumbai by the MMMF, had 19 successful seasons and became a significant meeting point for exceptionally talented Indian and international musicians.
More than 250 artists including some legendary musicians have performed for the MMMF – Andrea Bocelli, Mstislav Rostropovich, Daniel Barenboim, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Lang Lang, Gil Shaham, Alberto Lysy, Placido Domingo, Yuja Wang, Midori, Denis Matsuev, Yefim Bronfman, Alexei Grynyuk, Boris Berman, Pascal Roge, Sarah Chang, David Garret, Julian Rachlin, Diana Damrau, Barbara Frittoli, Fabio Satori, Julia Fischer, Olga Kern, Alan Gilbert, Inon Barnatan, Arabella Steinbacher, Dan Zhu among others.
The Foundation’s education programmes cover a wide spectrum of activities including early music education, group classes, instrument lessons, choir, string ensemble, chamber music, theory and history of music classes.
