Conductor Zubin Mehta to retire after 50 years with IPO
80-year old orchestral music director to hang up his baton at the Israel Philharmonic in 2019
BY DAVID SEDLEY December 26, 2016, 9:12 pmZubin Mehta, who has conducted the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra for the past 47 years,
announced Monday that he plans to retire in October 2019.The Indian-born musical director, who celebrated his 80th birthday this year, made the
announcement at a special gathering of the orchestra’s musicians. At the same time, he sketched out
his time with the IPO, from his first day on the job in 1969 until the present.Mehta joined the Philharmonic as its music adviser, later becoming its music director in 1977. In 1981
the orchestra appointed him Music Director for Life.Mehta was born in Bombay in 1936, which is also the year that the IPO was founded as the Palestine
Orchestra. His father, Mehli Mehta, was the founder of the Bombay Symphony Orchestra.
Fifty years! That’s a pretty good run, I think.
