Friday, 25 Oct 2019 10:02 AM MYT
The 83-year-old Indian conductor capped off thousands of performances as music director of the renowned symphony orchestra in a series of farewell concerts in Tel Aviv this week, making way for Lahav Shani, 30, to take the reins. Shani began piano studies while growing up in Tel Aviv, and with Mehta’s encouragement, later expanded his training to orchestral conducting at Berlin’s esteemed Academy of Music Hanns Eisler.
He concurrently serves as chief conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic — its youngest ever — and principal guest conductor of the Vienna Symphony. Mehta’s storied six-decade career also saw him lead the philharmonic orchestras of New York and Los Angeles and the main opera houses of Munich and Florence.