Zubin Mehta Quotes

Let’s try to count the number of Nobel prize-winners that have emerged from scientific centres of excellence like the Weizmann Institute and Haifa’s technical university, the Technion. There has to be at least 25.

I’m very much tied to the state of Israel, but I am against their policy of settlements in Palestine.

I love the creativity of New York, but I don’t enjoy the city – I don’t like living here.

I am always hearing from Israelis, ‘Oh, CNN is anti-Israel,’ or ‘BBC is against us.’ But no, they are reporting facts.

Even in music concerts in Mumbai and different parts of the world, seats are reserved for sponsors.

I am an Indian, so I do yoga.

I’m hopeful that Israelis can go to Ramallah whenever they want and see how the people are living.

I love to conduct opera.

Though there is such a rich tradition of culture and arts, I have never been invited to perform at a concert in South India.

I feel growing up in Mumbai is an advantage, as we grow up speaking so many languages that when we go abroad, it becomes easier to learn new languages.

Essentially, the [New York] Philharmonic is just like any other orchestra-they all have the spirit of kids, and if you scratch away a little of the fatigue and cynicism, out comes a 17-year-old music student again, full of wonder, exuberance and a tremendous love of music.

Some musical directors have more chutzpah. They pick up the phone and talk people into giving. I prefer to call and say ‘thank you’ after the money has been contributed.

One shouldn’t know the future.

…Ori Kam is an outstanding violist who has already played as a soloist with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra twice, much to our delight and satisfaction, and has availed himself with distinction.

There is a school in Israel called Hand in Hand which I support. There Arab and Jewish students study together on a daily basis.

My temples are only in India. When I am in India, I go to the religious ceremonies.

Israel is a piece of real estate that neither Jew or Arab will let go of; neither will leave these shores. And so they will have to learn to live together.

Rock music is predictable, unless there’s great talent involved.

I have a few homes, and Los Angeles is certainly one of them.

Music is the message of peace, and music only brings peace.

I love India.

It’s hard to find an emblem of cultural, national pride that burns as bright as Israel’s success in classical music.

In truth, I became a conductor because deep down I wanted to conduct Brahms’s four symphonies and Richard Strauss’s tone poems.

My life is so full of sacrifices.

The private sector is growing so incredibly in India, in every city you have industries for whom building a concert hall would be nothing financially. But they just don’t do it.

I’m really not a party person. I’m in the business of working with 100 people every day, so I don’t revel in meeting a roomful of people in my leisure time.

Rock music is predictable, unless theres great talent involved.

I always look at the work of fashion designers as if they were art.

I am jealous of all those people who live on the shore of Dal Lake.

In this art form, in any art form, generalities are useless.

The amount of culture going on in a small country like Israel is amazing.

I feel that the critic and music director should have such a good relationship they can pick up the phone and call each other any time.

In truth, I became a conductor because deep down I wanted to conduct Brahmss four symphonies and Richard Strausss tone poems.

I endeavor that all orchestras I conduct sound Central European.

I’m a pucca Indian. Bombay is my home.

My parents had chosen the medical profession for me. I even studied a few semesters at St Xavier’s College, but at the back of my mind, I always wanted to be a musician like my father.

Open rehearsals reach people who might not otherwise hear the Philharmonic – people on fixed incomes, people who can’t move easily at night, students.

I’m a Persian Jew, and we don’t speak Hebrew.

I just want to play for Hindus and Muslims that sit together. That’s all I want to do.

My tastes are Viennese.

After conducting Wagner, Beethoven’s triple concerto is like taking an Alka Seltzer.

If you can sing together, you can live together.

A woman’s life in the orchestra is not as long as a man’s; she is just not as good at 60 as a man is at 60.

An American orchestra doesn’t want to play more than it has to. I respectfully disagree with that attitude.

It seems always to have been difficult to have been a New York Philharmonic conductor because of the nature of New York. We are in direct competition with the great orchestras in the world who come to play in our hall or in Carnegie, and we are constantly compared. I think that ‘s a good thing.

I respect the Indian government for the fact that there are no settlements in Kashmir.

Why does Israel always have to suffer for others to feel bad for it?

In Bombay, we have a fine concert hall. I think it is high time we built venues in Delhi and Calcutta, not only for western music, but also Indian music. It doesn’t matter which party is in power; don’t you think the capital of India should have a concert hall?

Citizens of India, Pakistan, and Kashmir need to come together and make music.