Biography mehta zubin

Born April 29, 1936, in Bombay, India; son of Mehli Nowrowji (a violinist and conductor) and Tehmina Duruvala Mehta; married Carmen Lasky (divorced); married Nancy Kovack, 1969; children: (first marriage) Merwan (son), Zarina (daughter).

Education: Attended St. Xavier's College, Bombay; Vienna Academy of Music, beginning in 1954; and Accademia Chigiana, Siena, Italy, late 1950s. Addresses: Office-- Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, P.O. Box 11292, 1 Huberman St., 61112 Tel Aviv, Israel.

Zubin Mehta is part of a group of conductors--one that includes Lorin Maazel, Seiji Ozawa, Claudio Abbado, Andre Previn, and Daniel Barenboim--that succeeded older luminaries such as George Szell, Leonard Bernstein, Georg Solti, and Eugene Ormandy in carrying on the American orchestral tradition while infusing it with freshness and vitality.

At a time when ticket sales and subscriptions are down, conductors who can woo audiences--and win admiration from orchestra boards--are as sought after as majo