Isaac Stern (July 21, 1920 – September 22, 2001) was an American violinist.[1] Born in Poland, Stern came to the US when he was 14 months old. Stern performed both nationally and internationally, notably touring the Soviet Union and China, and performing extensively in Israel, a country to which he had close ties since shortly after its founding. Stern received extensive recognition for his work, including winning the Presidential Medal of Freedom and six Grammy Awards, and being named to the French Legion of Honour. The Isaac Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall bears his name, due to his role in saving the venue from demolition in the 1960s. Contents 1 Biography 2 Music career 3 Ties to Israel 4 Instruments 5 Awards and commemoration 6 Discography 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External links Biography Isaac Stern in 1975 The son of Solomon and Clara Stern,[2] Isaac Stern was born in Kremenets, Poland (now Ukraine), into a Jewish family. He was 14 months old when his family moved to San Francisco in 1921. He received his first music lessons from his mother. In 1928, he enrolled at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he studied until 1931 before going on to study privately with Louis Persinger.[3] He returned to the San Francisco Conservatory to study for five years with Naoum Blinder, to whom he said he owed the most.[4] At his public début on February 18, 1936, aged 15, he played Saint-Saëns' Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor with the San Francisco Symphony under the direction of Pierre Monteux. Reflecting on his background, Stern once memorably quipped that cultural exchanges between the U.S. and Soviet Russia were simple affairs: "They send us their Jews from Odessa, and we send them our Jews from Odessa."[5] During World War II, Stern was rejected from military service due to flat feet. He then joined the United Service Organizations and performed for US troops. During one such performance on Guadalcanal, a Japanese soldier, mesmerized by his playing, sneaked into the audience of US personnel listening to his performance before sneaking back out.[6][7] Stern toured the Soviet Union in 1951, the first American violinist to do so. In 1967, Stern stated his refusal to return to the USSR until the Soviet regime allowed artists to enter and leave the country freely. His only visit to Germany was in 1999, for a series of master classes, but he never performed publicly in Germany.[2] Stern was married three times. His first marriage, in 1948 to ballerina Nora Kaye, ended in divorce after 18 months, but the two of them remained friends.[8] On August 17, 1951, he married Vera Lindenblit (1927–2015). They had three children together, including conductors Michael and David Stern. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1994 after 43 years. In 1996, Stern married his third wife, Linda Reynolds. His third wife, his three children, and his five grandchildren survived him.[2] Stern died September 22, 2001 of heart failure in a Manhattan, New York, hospital after an extended stay.[2] Music career In 1940, Stern began performing with Russian-born pianist Alexander Zakin, collaborating until 1977.[9] Within musical circles, Stern became renowned both for his recordings and for championing certain younger players. Among his discoveries were cellists Yo-Yo Ma and Jian Wang, and violinists Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman. In the 1960s, he played a major role in saving New York City's Carnegie Hall from demolition, by organising the Citizens' Committee to Save Carnegie Hall. Following the purchase of Carnegie Hall by New York City, the Carnegie Hall Corporation was formed, and Stern was chosen as its first president, a title he held until his death.[2] Carnegie Hall later named its main auditorium in his honor.[10] Among Stern's many recordings are concertos by Brahms, Bach, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky, and Vivaldi and modern works by Barber, Bartók, Stravinsky, Bernstein, Rochberg, and Dutilleux. The Dutilleux concerto, entitled L'arbre des songes ["The Tree of Dreams"] was a 1985 commission by Stern himself. He also dubbed actors' violin-playing in several films, such as Fiddler on the Roof. Stern served as musical advisor for the 1946 film, Humoresque, about a rising violin star and his patron, played respectively by John Garfield and Joan Crawford. He was also the featured violin soloist on the soundtrack for the 1971 film of Fiddler on the Roof.[11] In 1999, he appeared in the film Music of the Heart, along with Itzhak Perlman and several other famed violinists, with a youth orchestra led by Meryl Streep (the film was based on the true story of a gifted violin teacher in Harlem who eventually took her musicians to play a concert in Carnegie Hall). External video video icon Interview with Stern on My First 79 Years, 26 October 1999, C-SPAN video icon Booknotes interview with Stern on My First 79 Years, 23 January 2000, C-SPAN In his autobiography, co-authored with Chaim Potok, My First 79 Years, Stern cited Nathan Milstein and Arthur Grumiaux as major influences on his style of playing. He won Grammys for his work with Eugene Istomin and Leonard Rose in their famous chamber music trio in the 1960s and '70s, while also continuing his duo work with Alexander Zakin during this time. Stern recorded a series of piano quartets in the 1980s and 1990s with Emanuel Ax, Jaime Laredo and Yo-Yo Ma, including those of Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann and Fauré, winning another Grammy in 1992 for the Brahms quartets Opp. 25 and 26. In 1979, seven years after Richard Nixon made the first official visit by a US president to the country, the People's Republic of China offered Stern and pianist David Golub an unprecedented invitation to tour the country. While there, he collaborated with the China Central Symphony Society (now China National Symphony) under the direction of conductor Li Delun. Their visit was filmed and resulted in the Oscar-winning documentary, From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China. Ties to Israel Stern maintained close ties with Israel. Stern began performing in the country in 1949.[1] In 1973, he performed for wounded Israeli soldiers during the Yom Kippur War. During the 1991 Gulf War and Iraq's Scud missile attacks on Israel, he had been playing in the Jerusalem Theater. During his performance, an air raid siren sounded, causing the audience to panic. Stern then stepped onto the stage and began playing a movement of Bach. The audience then calmed down, donned gas masks, and sat throughout the rest of his performance.[12] Stern was a supporter of several educational projects in Israel, among them the America-Israel Foundation and the Jerusalem Music Center.[1] Instruments Isaac Stern playing with one hand in 1979 Stern's favorite instrument was the Ysa e Guarnerius, one of the violins produced by the Cremonese luthier Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù.[13] It had previously been played by the violin virtuoso and composer Eugène Ysa e. Among other instruments, Stern played the "Kruse-Vormbaum" Stradivarius (1728), the "ex-Stern" Bergonzi (1733), the "Panette" Guarneri del Gesù (1737), a Michele Angelo Bergonzi (1739–1757), the "Arma Senkrah" Guadagnini (1750), a Giovanni Guadagnini (1754), a J. B. Vuillaume copy of the "Panette" Guarneri del Gesu of 1737 (c.1850), and the "ex-Nicolas I" J.B. Vuillaume (1840). He also owned two contemporary instruments by Samuel Zygmuntowicz and modern Italian Jago Peternella Violins. In 2001, Stern's collection of instruments, bows and musical ephemera was sold through Tarisio Auctions. The May 2003 auction set a number of world records and was at the time the second highest grossing violin auction of all time, with total sales of over $3.3M.[14] Awards and commemoration Isaac Stern with the Edison in 1971 Sonning Award (1982; Denmark) Wolf Prize Kennedy Center Honors (1984) Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra) (1962, 1963, 1965, 1982) Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance (1971, 1992) National Medal of Arts (1991)[15] Presidential Medal of Freedom (1992)[16] Elected to the American Philosophical Society (1995)[17] Polar Music Prize (2000; Sweden) Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur (1990) Gold Medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society (1991) Carnegie Hall Midtown Manhattan, New York: main auditorium was named for Isaac Stern in 1997. In 2012, a street in Tel Aviv was named for Stern.[1] Discography Bezalel Schatz painting a portrait of Isaac Stern This list of songs or music-related items is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (October 2021) 1944 Brahms: String Sextet No. 1 (with Alexander Schneider, Milton Katims, Milton Thomas, Pablo Casals and Madeleine Foley) 1944 Brahms: Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello No. 1 in B Major, op. 8 (with Myra Hess and Pablo Casals) 1946 Violin selections from the movie Humoresque (1946 film) with Oscar Levant on the piano, Columbia Masterworks Records set MM-657 1951 Brahms: Violin Concerto in D Major (with Sir Thomas Beecham and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra), Columbia Records 1952 Bach: Partita in E Minor & G Minor for Violin and Piano, Sonata No.3 in E Major for Violin and Piano (with Alexander Zakin) 1957 Wieniawski: Violin Concerto No. 2 in D Minor, op. 22 (with Philadelphia Orchestra; conductor: Eugene Ormandy) 1958 Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D Major op. 35 (with Philadelphia Orchestra; conductor: Eugene Ormandy) Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in e minor op. 64 (with Philadelphia Orchestra; conductor: Eugene Ormandy) 1959 Saint-Saens: Introduction & Rondo Capriccioso op. 28 (with Philadelphia Orchestra; conductor: Eugene Ormandy) Beethoven: Violin Concerto op. 61 (with New York Philharmonic; conductor: Leonard Bernstein) 1964 Hindemith: Violin Concerto (1939) (with New York Philharmonic; conductor: Leonard Bernstein) 1978 Penderecki: Violin Concerto No. 1 (1976)(with Minnesota Orchestra; conductor: Stanislaw Skrowaczewski) 1983 Bach, Vivaldi: Concertos for 2 Violins Isaac Stern: 60th Anniversary Celebration Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto; Beethoven: Romances in G & F Major Haydn: London Trios 1984 Barber Violin Concerto 1985 An Isaac Stern Vivaldi Gala 1986 Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn: Violin Concertos 1987 Dutilleux: L'Arbre des Songes (Concerto pour Violin et Orchestre) Maxwell Davies: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra Celebration Bach: Double Concerto; Violin Concertos Nos.1 & 2 Beethoven: Violin Concerto Mozart: The Flute Quartets Bach: Concertos for Violin, BWV 1041–43 & 1060 1988 Shostakovich: Piano Trio No.2; Cello Sonata Brahms: Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra in A Minor, Op. 102 & Piano Quartet No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 60 Prokofiev: Violin Concertos No. 1 & 2 Brahms: Violin Concerto 1989 The Japanese Album Music, My Love Prokofiev: Concertos No. 1 & 2 for Violin and Orchestra Mozart: Violin Concertos Nos.4 & 5 1990 Brahms, Mendelssohn, Schubert: Trios Brahms: The Piano Quartets Rameau: Pieces de clavecin en concerts Lalo, Bruch, Wenianski, others: Violin Concertos Bach, Mozart, Brahms, others: Violin Concertos Mozart, Telemann, J.C. Bach, Reicha: Trios, Quartets Schubert: Violin Sonatas Humoresque: Favorite Violin Encores 1991 Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.5 "Emperor"; Triple Concerto Beethoven: Complete Trios Concert of the Century: Celebrating the 85th Anniversary of Carnegie Hall Dvorák: Cello Concerto; Violin Concerto Webern: Complete Works, Op. 1 – Op. 31 1992 Brahms: Sextets; more Beethoven & Schumann Piano Quartets (with Emanuel Ax, Jaime Loredo, & Yo-Yo Ma) 1993 Tchaikovsky: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra & Serenade for Strings Fauré: Piano Quartets 1994 Greatest Hits: Violin The House of Magical Sounds Greatest Hits: Schubert Greatest Hits: Brahms Beethoven, Schumann: Piano Quartets Mozart: Sonatas for Violin and Piano, K. 454, 296 & 526 Beethoven: Piano Trios "Ghost" & "Archduke" Bach: Violin Concerto, BWV 1041; Piano Concerto, BWV 1056; Brandenburg Concerto No.5; more Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante; Violin Concerto No.5 Brahms: Sextet in B-flat major, Op. 18 & Piano Trio No. 1 in B major, Op. 8 Schubert: Quintet in C major, D956 & Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, D485 1995 Isaac Stern Presents Encores with Orchestra Telemann, Bach Family: Trio Sonatas Mendelssohn: Piano Trios 1 & 2 Brahms: Piano Trios, Piano Quartets A Life in Music, Vol.3: Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, more Beethoven: Piano Trios "Ghost" & "Archduke"; Variations Schubert, Haydn: Piano Trios; Mozart: Piano Quartet Bartók: Violin Concertos Bernstein/Dutilleux: Violin Concertos Berg: Violin Concerto; Kammerkonzert Prokofiev/Bartók: Violin Concertos; Rhapsody No.1 Stravinsky/Rochberg: Violin Concertos Barber/Maxwell Davies: Violin Concertos Hindemith/Penderecki: Violin Concertos Berg: Piano Sonata; Krenek: Piano Sonata No.3; Webern: Piano Variations; Debussy, Ravel: works A Life in Music, Vol.1: Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Sibelius, more Mozart: Haffner Serenade Mozart: Sonatas for Violin and Piano, Vol. II Beethoven, Brahms: Violin Concertos Tchaikovsky/Sibelius: Violin Concertos Bach: Violin Concertos; Double Concerto; more Vivaldi: The Four Seasons; Concertos Mozart: Violin Concertos Nos.1–5; Sinfonia concertante; more Wieniawski/Bruch/Tchaikovsky: Violin Concertos Mendelssohn/Dvorák: Violin Concertos Saint-Saëns: Violin concerto n°3, Lalo: Symphonie Espagnole, Chausson: Poème, Fauré: Berceuse, Ravel: Tzigane 1996 More Mozart's Greatest Hits Mozart: Violin Sonatas, Vol. III Schubert and Boccherini String Quintets A Life in Music, Vol.4: Bach, Bartók, Beethoven, Copland, Schubert, more Prokofiev: Violin Sonatas Bartók: Violin Sonatas; Webern: Four Pieces for Violin and Piano Beethoven: Violin Sonatas J.S. & C.P.E. Bach, Handel, Tartini: Violin Sonatas Hindemith/Bloch/Copland: Violin Sonatas Schubert: Sonatinas Nos.1–3; Rondeau Brillant; Grand Duo Sonata Franck/Debussy/Enesco: Violin Sonatas Brahms: Violin Sonatas No. 1-3 Isaac Stern Presents Encores with Violin & Piano 1997 Barber: Adagio for Strings / Schuman – In Praise of Shahn etc. Bartók Sonatas for Violin and Piano Mozart: The Piano Quartets 1998 Isaac Stern Plays Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D Bernstein: The Age of Anxiety; Foss: Serenade Bach, Vivaldi: Concertos Caprice Viennois: Music of Kreisler 1999 My First 79 Years Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn: Violin Concertos 2000 Dvorák: Piano Quartet No.2, Sonatina in G, Romantic Pieces Vivaldi: The Four Seasons; Concertos for Two Violins ****Issac Stern (violinist, born July 21, 1920, Kr iniwcz, Russia; died September 22, 2001) Issac Stern is universally considered to be one of the greatest musicians of all time. He has been hailed as "one of the supreme violinists of this century" and "the first American violin virtuoso." He calls himself "a fiddle player." When Stern was less than a year old, his parents fled with him from the Russian Revolution and settled in San Francisco. His earliest memories are of American life. Both his parents were musical, and his mother, who had studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, began teaching him the piano when he was six. Unlike some child prodigies, he did not take up the violin until the advanced age of eight, and he was 14 before he made his recital debut. With his San Francisco Symphony Debut, playing a Brahms Violin Concerto, two years later, with Naoum Blinder, his major teacher and concertmaster of the orchestra, his career was launched. On October 11, 1937, at the age of 17, he made his New York debut at Town Hall. In 1943, he debuted at Carnegie Hall, and in 1944, with the New York Philharmonic under Arthur Rodzinski. He played with the New York Philharmonic for more than four decades. With his early performances in New York, his career began to soar, at first under the guidance of impresario Sol Hurok. By 1949, a New York Times critic noted: "It was not the violinist one se ed to be hearing. It was, in turn, Haydn, Bach, Bartók, Mozart, and Szymanowski. For such was Mr. Stern's immersion in the music that his own spirit and his immense technical skill were but the mediums that made the music audible." Since his European debut in 1948 at the Lucerne Festival under Munch, he has concertized the world over including the USSR in 1956, played in the internationally renowned Istomin-Stern-Rose Trio and premiered violin works by Bernstein, Hind ith, Penderecki, Rochberg, and Schuman. He gave an historic performance, with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Leonard Bernstein, was captured in the film A Journey to Jerusal. More then a decade later, his visit to China resulted in the Academy Award-winning documentary From Mao to Mozart: Issac Stern in China, which also received a special mention at the Cannes Film Festival. One of the most recorded violinists of our age, he is versatile in His performances. He was the ghost violinist for John Garfield in the 1946 film Humoresque and played the violin solo for the Oscar-winning soundtrack of Fiddler on the Roof. Another film in which he performed was Tonight We Sing, the film biography of Sol Hurok, in which he appeared as Eugene Ysaye. Stern is not only a champion musician, he has also championed cultural preservation in America. In 1960, he organized a group to save Carnegie Hall from d olition and was instrumental in the decision to preserve it as a National Historic Landmark. Consequently, he became president of the Carnegie Hal Corporation, a position he held for over thirty years. He was featured in the my Award winning "Carnegie Hall: The Grand Reopening" (1987). Among the numerous awards he has received is the first Albert Schweitzer Music Award bestowed on him "for a life dedicated to music and devoted to humanity." **** Legendary Violinist Isaac Stern's Legacy Lives On After 100 Years July 19, 20207:58 AM ET Heard on Weekend Edition Sunday Jeff Lunden JEFF LUNDEN 5-Minute Listen Download Transcript July 21 is the centennial of the birth of Isaac Stern. The violinist worked with his contemporaries, like Igor Stravinsky and Leonard Bernstein, and went on to mentor the next generation of musicians. Keystone/Getty Images The tombstone on Isaac Stern's grave reads simply "Isaac Stern, Fiddler," but the violinist was much more than that: He was an educator who mentored generations of musicians, including Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman, and he was an activist who helped save Carnegie Hall from the wrecker's ball. Isaac Stern was born on the shifting border between Poland and Ukraine 100 years ago on July 21, 1920. As an infant, his parents brought him to the U.S., where they settled in San Francisco. "He had no aspirations to play music at all until, as he tells it, some kid across the street was playing and he wanted to play," says his son, Michael Stern. His father was 8 years old at the time. Recognizing his talent, Stern's mother pulled him out of school. He made his public debut with the San Francisco Symphony when he was 15 and two years later, he was performing in New York. 120 Years At Carnegie Hall DECEPTIVE CADENCE 120 Years At Carnegie Hall "I went out early the next morning. I bought the papers and read the reviews with my mother," Stern wrote in his autobiography, My First 79 Years. "We were bitterly disappointed. I was being patted on the head by some of New York's most eminent critics. My playing was erratic. That I oughta go back to San Francisco and practice some more." YouTube "And that's what he did," says Carnegie Hall archivist Gino Francesconi. Stern returned to acclaim a few years later and launched a remarkable career performing recitals and chamber music, playing with major symphony orchestras. He played the classics, but also worked with contemporary composers including Igor Stravinsky and Leonard Bernstein. "Isaac, my Isaac, whatever happens tonight, fair or foul or flop, I want you to know how much I will always cherish your work on our Serenade," reads a note Bernstein wrote to Stern on a piece of hotel stationary before the premiere of his piece, Serenade (after Plato's Symposium). "Nobody can play like you and nobody can play the piece as you can." Throughout his career, Stern practiced relentlessly – even while watching football games on TV. But his musicianship wasn't just about technique. In the process of learning how to be a great musician, he says, the real question that needs to be answered is not how to play well, but why one chooses to play at all. "Why do you play? Why do you want to be a musician? What do you want to say?" he said in conversation with NPR's Diane Rehm in 1999. "Only a human being can speak with a certain individual voice. And that's what every musician has to learn." Stern wanted to impart what he'd learned to the next generation. "He wasn't somebody who was just playing the violin, he took interest in the world," says the violinist Midori, who was mentored by Stern. "He took interest in his community. He took interest in people like us, the younger generation. And he was so committed to giving himself and becoming involved, taking action where he felt that it was necessary." When he wasn't able to join the army because of flat feet during World War II, Stern joined the United Service Organizations and played for the troops. And when Carnegie Hall was scheduled to be demolished in 1960, he was instrumental in saving it, says his son, Michael. "I think it gave him an enormous sense of pride that he could give back both to the city and to the country, something which he felt was so important and that was so important to him," Michael Stern says. Isaac Stern went on to serve as president of Carnegie Hall for 40 years, and he was very much an American musician, says his other son, David — who, like his brother, became a conductor. "The Americans who managed to come through and start on their own — in their own way, like my father — could invent everything," David Stern says. "They didn't have this burden of having to continue a tradition. And this was really the chance to say, I am an American artist. And that freedom you hear in his playing." YouTube As someone who started with nothing and devoted his life to giving back to the country he called home, Isaac Stern said he never stopped learning. "In eight decades, I feel that I am still a student. And that's what's wonderful. The wonderful thing is to search and sometimes find." Isaac Stern died of heart failure in 2001 at the age of 81. **** Zubin Mehta AC (born 29 April 1936) is an Indian conductor of Western classical music. He is music director emeritus of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) and conductor emeritus of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Mehta's father was the founder of the Bombay Symphony Orchestra, and Mehta received his early musical education from him. When he was 18, he enrolled in the Vienna state music academy, from which he graduated after three years with a diploma as a conductor. He began winning international competitions and conducted the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic at age 21. Beginning in the 1960s, Mehta gained experience by substituting for celebrated maestros throughout the world. Mehta was music director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra from 1961 to 1967 and of the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 1962 to 1978, the youngest music director ever for any major North American orchestra. In 1969, he was appointed Music Adviser to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and in 1981 he became its Music Director for Life. From 1978 to 1991, Mehta was music director of the New York Philharmonic. He was chief conductor of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence from 1985 to 2017. He is an honorary citizen of both Florence and Tel Aviv and was made an honorary member of the Vienna State Opera in 1997 and of the Bavarian State Opera in 2006. The title of Honorary Conductor was bestowed on him by numerous orchestras throughout the world. More recently, Mehta made several tours with the Bavarian State Opera and kept up a busy schedule of guest conducting appearances. In December 2006, he received the Kennedy Center Honor and in October 2008 he was honored by the Japanese Imperial Family with the Praemium Imperiale. In 2016, Mehta was appointed Honorary Conductor of the Teatro San Carlo, Naples. Contents 1 Early years and education 2 Conducting career 2.1 1960s 2.2 1970s–1980s 2.3 1990s 2.4 2000s 2.5 2010s 3 Personal life 4 Honours and awards 5 Films 6 Educational projects 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External links Early years and education Mehta was born into a Parsi family in Bombay (now Mumbai), India, during the British Raj, the older son of Mehli (1908–2002) and Tehmina (Daruvala) Mehta.[1][2] His native language is Gujarati.[3] His father was a self-taught violinist who founded and conducted the Bombay Symphony Orchestra and later the American Youth Symphony, which he conducted for 33 years after moving to Los Angeles.[1] His father had previously lived in New York to study with violinist Ivan Galamian, a noted teacher who also taught Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman.[1] His father returned to Bombay as an accomplished violinist of the Russian school.[1] Mehta has said that on many occasions when he conducts in the U.S., someone approaches him to say, "You don't know how much I loved your father!".[1] Mehta has described his childhood as surrounded by music at home all the time, and has said he probably learnt to speak Gujarati and sing around the same time. He says his father had a strong influence on him, and he listened to his quartet daily after his father returned from the USA after the Second World War.[4] Mehta was first taught to play violin and piano by his father. When he reached his early teens, his father allowed him to lead sectional rehearsals of the Bombay Symphony, and at sixteen, he was conducting the full orchestra during rehearsals.[5] Mehta graduated from St. Mary's School, Mumbai and went on to study medicine at St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, at the urging of his mother, who wanted him to take up a more "respectable" profession than music.[5] At age eighteen, he dropped out after two years to move to Vienna, one of Europe's music centers, in order to study music under Hans Swarowsky at the state music academy.[5] He lived on $75 per month, and was a contemporary of conductor Claudio Abbado and conductor-pianist Daniel Barenboim. He remained at the academy for three years, during which time he also studied the double bass, which he played in the Vienna Chamber Orchestra.[5] Swarowsky recognized Mehta's abilities early on, describing him as a "demoniac conductor" who "had it all".[6] While still a student, after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, he organized a student orchestra in seven days and conducted it in a concert at a refugee camp outside Vienna.[6] Mehta graduated in 1957 when he was 21 with a diploma in conducting.[5] In 1958 he entered the Liverpool International Conductor's Competition with 100 contestants and took first prize. The prize included a year's contract as associate conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, which he conducted in 14 concerts, all of which received rave reviews.[5][7] He then was a 2nd-place prizewinner at the summer academy at the Tanglewood Music Center in Massachusetts.[7] At that competition he attracted the notice of Charles Munch, then the conductor of the Boston Symphony, who later helped his career.[5] In 1958, he boldly programmed an all-Schoenberg concert, which did so well that he accepted further bookings.[6] That same year he also married a Canadian voice student, Carmen Lasky, whom he met in Vienna.[6] Conducting career 1960s During 1960 and 1961, Mehta was asked to substitute for celebrated maestros throughout the world, receiving high critical acclaim for most of those concerts.[6] In 1960, he conducted a series for the Vienna Symphony and later that summer made his New York conducting debut leading the New York Philharmonic.[5] [Mehta] has the capacity to control every sound made by an orchestra, and he does this with the simplest of gestures, every one of which has an immediate and perceptible effect. He has a talent for conveying a mood of serenity, or of serene grandeur, to both orchestra and audiences that is rare indeed among the younger generation of conductors. —Music critic Winthrop Sargeant, on Mehta's 1967 New York debut at Carnegie Hall[8] In 1960, with the help of Charles Munch, Mehta became the chief conductor and Music Director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, a post he held until 1967. By 1961, he had already conducted the Vienna, Berlin and Israel Philharmonic orchestras.[7] In 1962, he took the Montreal Symphony on a concert tour to Russia, Paris and Vienna. Mehta was most apprehensive about his concert in Vienna, which he said was considered the "capital of Western music". His single concert there received a 20-minute ovation, 14 curtain calls, and two encores.[9] In 1961, he was named assistant conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic (LAP), although the orchestra's music director designate, Georg Solti, was not consulted on the appointment, and resigned in protest.[10] The orchestra had been without a permanent conductor for four years when Mehta started directing it.[5] Mehta was named Music Director of the orchestra and held the post from 1962 to 1978. When he began his first season with the orchestra in 1962, he was 26, the youngest person ever to hold that title.[5] And as he had also conducted the Montreal Symphony during those early years, he became the first person ever to direct two North American symphony orchestras at the same time.[5] As the LAP's first conductor in four years, Mehta worked to polish its overall sound to something closer to the Vienna Philharmonic's. He succeeded in making its sound warmer and richer by fostering competition among the musicians, shifting assignments, giving promotions and changing seating arrangements.[6] He also inspired the musicians; 21-year-old cellist Jacqueline du Pré said, "He provides a magic carpet for you to float on." Cellist Kurt Reher recalls Mehta's first rehearsal with the orchestra: "within two beats we were entranced. It seemed this young man had the ability, the musical knowledge of a man of 50 or 55."[6] In 1965, after Mehta's debut with the Metropolitan Opera's performance of Aida, music critic Alan Rich wrote, "Mehta brought to the conducting of the score a kind of bedazzlement that has no peer in recent times ... It was a lunging, teeming, breathless performance that still had plenty of breath."[5] He subsequently conducted the Met in performances of Carmen, Tosca, and Turandot. For Montreal's Expo 67, he conducted both the Montreal and the Los Angeles orchestras together for a performance of Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique.[5] Also that year he conducted the world premier of Marvin David Levy's Mourning Becomes Electra.[5] By May 1967, his schedule was becoming overcrowded and he resigned his Montreal post. That fall he took the 107-member Los Angeles Philharmonic on an eight-week tour, including engagements in Vienna, Paris, Athens, and Bombay.[5] By 1968, his popularity kept him busier than the year before, including 22 weeks of concerts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, three operas at the Met, television appearances in the U.S. and Italy, five recording sessions, and guest appearances at five festivals and with five orchestras.[5] Time magazine put him on its cover in January 1968.[6] In 1969 his schedule remained equally active.[5] In 1970 Mehta performed with Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention on Zappa's "200 Motels" and Edgar Varese’s Intergrales, at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion basketball stadium with an audience of 12,000. There is no authorized recording, though some bootlegs exist. 1970s–1980s In 1978, Mehta became the Music Director and Principal Conductor of the New York Philharmonic and remained there until his resignation in 1991. Mehta with Isaac Stern at Lincoln Center, 1980 He became music director of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) in 1977. He began the first of many guest appearances with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) in 1961. In 1966, he toured with the orchestra, and during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, he rushed back to Israel to conduct several special concerts to "demonstrate solidarity" with its people.[11] He was appointed IPO's Music Advisor in 1969, Music Director in 1977, and was made its Music Director for Life in 1981.[12] During his five-decade connection with the IPO, he has conducted it in thousands of concerts in Israel and abroad.[1] He conducted concerts with the IPO in South Lebanon in 1982, after which Arabs rushed onstage to hug the musicians.[13] He conducted it during the Gulf War in 1991, when the audience brought gas masks; in 2007, it played for an entirely Arab audience in Nazareth.[13] He claims to have a "deep kinship" with Israel's musicians and the "spirit and tradition of the Jewish people".[11] He adds that conducting the IPO is "something I do for my heart".[11] Recalling those earlier years, he says, "How I would love to see that sight again today, of Arabs and Jews hugging each other. I'm a positive thinker. I know this day will come."[13] In 1978, Mehta left the Los Angeles Philharmonic to become music director for the New York Philharmonic (NYP).[13] Among the reasons he wanted to direct the NYP was that it allowed him to experiment with new ideas, such as taking the orchestra to Harlem. There, they played at the Abyssinian Baptist Church each year. Accompanying the orchestra with Mehta for various concerts were Isaac Stern, Itzhak Perlman, and Kathleen Battle.[13] He stayed with NYP until 1991.[13] From 1985 to 2017, Mehta was chief conductor of the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence.[14] From 1998 until 2006, he was music director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. The Munich Philharmonic named him its Honorary Conductor. Since 2005, Mehta has been the main conductor of the Palau de les Arts, the new opera house of the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències in Valencia, Spain. While he was the conductor of the New York Philharmonic, Mehta commissioned Ravi Shankar's Concerto No. 2 for sitar and orchestra. Following New York performances, the concerto was later recorded with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.[15]: vii [16][17] 1990s In 1998 he went to Munich where he began directing the Bavarian State Opera, because, he said, it provided "another panorama for me, to be involved in the running of an opera house".[13] In 1990, he conducted the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and the Orchestra del Teatro dell'Opera di Roma in the first ever Three Tenors concert in Rome, joining the tenors again in 1994 at the Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles. In between those appearances, he conducted the historic 1992 production of Tosca in which each act took place in the actual setting and at the actual time specified in the score. This production starred Catherine Malfitano in the title role, Plácido Domingo as Cavaradossi and Ruggero Raimondi as Baron Scarpia. Act I was telecast live from Rome's Basilica of Sant'Andrea della Valle on Saturday, 11 July, at noon (Central European Daylight Saving Time); act II was telecast later that evening from the Palazzo Farnese at 9:40 p.m.; act III was telecast live on Sunday, 12 July, at 7:00 am from the Castel Sant'Angelo, also known as Hadrian's Tomb. Mehta conducting the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in Mumbai, October 2008 In June 1994, Mehta performed the Mozart Requiem with the members of the Sarajevo Symphony Orchestra and Chorus at the ruins of Sarajevo's National Library, in a fundraising concert for the victims of armed conflict and remembrance of the thousands of people killed in the Yugoslav Wars. On 29 August 1999, he conducted Mahler's Symphony No. 2 (Resurrection), at the vicinity of Buchenwald concentration camp in Weimar, with the Bavarian State Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra sitting alongside each other. He toured India (Mumbai) in 1984 with the New York Philharmonic, and again in November–December 1994 with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, along with soloists Itzhak Perlman and Gil Shaham. In 1997 and 1998, Mehta worked in collaboration with Chinese film director Zhang Yimou on a production of Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot, which they took to Florence and to Beijing, where it was staged in its actual surroundings in the Forbidden City, with over 300 extras and 300 soldiers, for nine historic performances. The making of this production was chronicled in the documentary The Turandot Project, which Mehta narrated. Mehta was a guest conductor for the American Russian Young Artists Orchestra.[18][19] 2000s Zubin Mehta, 2010 On 26 December 2005, the first anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami, Mehta and the Bavarian State Orchestra performed for the first time in Chennai (formerly Madras) at the Madras Music Academy. This tsunami memorial concert was organized by the German consulate in Chennai along with the Max-Mueller Bhavan/Goethe-Institut. 2006 was his last year with the Bavarian State Orchestra. 2010s In 2011, Mehta's performance with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra at The Proms in London was picketed and interrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters,[20] which caused the BBC to halt the live radio relay of the concert, the first such incident in Proms history. In September 2013, Mehta appeared with the Bavarian State Orchestra at a special concert, Ehsaas e Kashmir, organized by the German Embassy in India, at Mughal Gardens, Srinagar. Mehta and the orchestra renounced their usual fees for this concert.[21] In October 2015, he returned to Chennai to perform with the Australian World Orchestra (AWO) at the Madras Music Academy.[22][23] In 2016, the Harbin Symphony Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra performed two concerts conducted by Mehta in the frame of 33rd Harbin Summer Music Festival at Harbin Concert Hall.[24] In December 2016, the Israel Philharmonic announced that Mehta would conclude his tenure as music director in October 2019.[25] He now has the title of music director emeritus of the Israel Philharmonic. In August 2022 Mehta will be conducting the Australian World Orchestra (AWO) in Sydney and Melbourne at Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House and Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne. He will also be conducting the AWO at the Edinburgh International Festival and the BBC Proms 2022.[26] Personal life Mehta's first marriage was to Canadian soprano Carmen Lasky in 1958. They have a son, Mervon (since April 2009, Executive Director of Performing Arts for The Royal Conservatory in Toronto), and a daughter, Zarina. In 1964 they divorced.[27] Two years after the divorce, Carmen married Mehta's brother, Zarin Mehta, formerly the Executive Director of the New York Philharmonic. In July 1969, Mehta married Nancy Kovack, an American former film and television actress.[28] A permanent resident of the United States, Mehta retains his Indian citizenship.[29] One of his close friends was Ravi Shankar, whom he first met in the 1960s when Mehta directed him with the Montreal Symphony. Their friendship continued after they were both living in Los Angeles and later in New York. "This was a wonderful period in my life and Zubin and I really had a great time."[15]: vii  His second daughter Alexandra was born in Los Angeles in 1967, the result of an affair Mehta had between his two marriages.[30] His son Ori was born in the 1990s as the result of an extra-marital affair in Israel during Mehta's second marriage.[31][30] Honours and awards Then U.S. President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush stand with the Kennedy Center honourees in the Blue Room of the White House during a reception Sunday, 3 December 2006. From left, they are singer and songwriter Smokey Robinson; Andrew Lloyd Webber; country singer Dolly Parton; film director Steven Spielberg; and Zubin Mehta. In 1965, he received an honorary doctorate from Sir George Williams University, which later became Concordia University.[32] Mehta's name is mentioned in the song Billy the Mountain on the 1972 album Just Another Band from L.A. by Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention. Cellist Kurt Reher, who played when Mehta conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic, was also a guest musician with The Mothers of Invention.[33] At the Israel Prize ceremony in 1991, Mehta was awarded a special prize in recognition of his unique devotion to Israel and to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1995, he became a Laureate of the Wolf Prize in Arts. In 1999, Mehta was presented the "Lifetime Achievement Peace and Tolerance Award" of the United Nations. The Government of India honoured Mehta in 1966 with the Padma Bhushan and in 2001 with India's second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan.[34] In September 2006 the Kennedy Center announced Mehta as one of the recipients of that year's Kennedy Center Honors, presented on 3 December 2006. In February 2007, Mehta was the recipient of the Second Annual Bridgebuilder Award at Loyola Marymount University. Mehta is an honorary citizen of Florence and Tel Aviv. He was made an honorary member of the Vienna State Opera in 1997. In 2001 he has bestowed the title of "Honorary Conductor" of the Vienna Philharmonic and in 2004 the Munich Philharmonic awarded him the same title, as did the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in 2006. At the end of his tenure with the Bavarian State Opera he was named Honorary Conductor of the Bavarian State Orchestra and Honorary Member of the Bavarian State Opera, and the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, Wien, appointed him an honorary member in November 2007. Also in 2007 Mehta received the prestigious Dan David Prize. Conductor Karl Böhm awarded Mehta the Nikisch Ring – the Vienna Philharmonic Ring of Honor. In October 2008, Mehta received the Praemium Imperiale (World Culture Prize in Memory of His Imperial Highness Prince Takamatsu), Japan. In March 2011, Mehta received the 2,434th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In October 2011 he received the Echo Klassik in Berlin, for his life's work.[35] In September 2013, President of India Pranab Mukherjee awarded him the Tagore Award 2013 for his outstanding contribution towards cultural harmony.[36] In January 2019, the Los Angeles Philharmonic named Mehta as their Conductor Emeritus.[37] In February 2019, the Berlin Philharmonic made Mehta an honorary member as an expression of gratitude for their long association.[38] In September 2019, President of Slovenia Borut Pahor conferred the Golden Order of Merit on Zubin Mehta for his contribution to music and the inspiring effort to connect people and nations with this form of art.[39] In November 2020, the World Jewish Congress presented Mehta with their fifth Teddy Kollek Award for the Advancement of Jewish Culture.[40] In September 2022, received Honorary Companion of the Order of Australia from the Governor General David Hurley in recognition of his eminent service to the Australia-India bilateral relationship and humanity-at-large, particularly in the fields of classical music and philanthropy.[41] Films Mehta's life was documented in Terry Sanders's film Portrait of Zubin Mehta (1968). Another documentary about Mehta, Zubin and I, was produced by the grandson of an Israeli harpist who played with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra before Mehta assumed the helm. The filmmaker joins the orchestra on a tour of Mumbai and meets with him for two interviews, in India and Tel Aviv.[42] In Christopher Nupen's 1969 documentary The Trout about a performance of Schubert's Trout Quintet in London by Jacqueline du Pré, Daniel Barenboim, Pinchas Zukerman, Itzhak Perlman and Mehta, he plays the double bass.[1] Mehta and the Los Angeles Philharmonic are featured in Alan Miller's 1973 film The Bolero. Zubin Mehta was also mentioned in the novel Master of the Game (1982) by Sidney Sheldon.[citation needed] Mehta has played himself as the pivotal figure in On Wings of Fire, a 1986 film about the history of Zoroastrianism and prophet Zarathushtra. Mehta was also interviewed for and appears within the 1995 A&E Network documentary on Mozart for the Biography series. Zubin Mehta: In Rehearsal (1996) depicts Mehta rehearsing Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks with the Israel Philharmonic.[citation needed] Zubin Mehta and his orchestra stars in the 2017 Spanish film documentary Dancing Beethoven, which tells the preparation of the Ninth Symphony.[43] The film was nominated in the 32nd Goya Awards for Best Documentary Film and in the XXIII Premio Cinematográfico José María Forqué.[44] A 2008 release by Unitel Classica/Medici Arts presents Mehta and the Los Angeles Philharmonic in performances of the Bassoon Concerto by Mozart, the Concerto for Orchestra by Bartók and three pieces of Dvořák including his 8th Symphony. These were filmed in January of 1977.[citation needed] Educational projects In 2009, Mehta established Mifneh (Hebrew for "change"), a music education program for Israeli Arabs, in cooperation with Bank Leumi and the Arab-Israel Bank. Three schools, in Shfaram, the Jezreel Valley and Nazareth, are taking part in the pilot project.[45] He and his brother Zarin constitute the Advisor Council of the Mehli Mehta Foundation.[46] In 2005, Mehta and philanthropist Josef Buchmann founded the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music as a partnership between Tel Aviv University and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Mehta is the school's honorary president and has remained actively involved since its inception.[47]  EBAY5949 207

• Condition: Very good condition . Clean. ( Pls look at scan for accurate AS IS images )
• Industry: Music
• Signed: Yes
• Country of Manufacture: Israel
• Original/Reproduction: Original
• Country/Region of Manufacture: Israel

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