Zubin Mehta will mark his 90th birthday year by returning to his hometown of Mumbai, India. At the invitation of the Mehli Mehta Music Foundation, the Belgrade Philharmonic will perform two concerts this month at the National Center of Performing Arts. Under Mehta’s baton, the orchestra will be joined by violinist Pinchas Zukerman and pianist Lang Lang.
These concerts will launch Mehta’s 90th birthday celebrations, which will take place across the world throughout 2026. The Belgrade Philharmonic will share the stage with Lang Lang in Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto. With the violinist – and Mehta’s longtime friend and colleague – Pinchas Zukerman, they will perform Mozart’s Violin Concerto no. 5. The performances will be crowned with Beethoven’s Third and Seventh Symphonies.
The concerts in Mumbai are hosted by the Mehli Mehta Music Foundation, named after Zubin Mehta’s father. The foundation also runs a music school whose students will perform Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances alongside musicians of the Belgrade Philharmonic at the opening of the first concert, as their tribute and a gift to Mehta.
“I am deeply delighted to be performing with my beloved Belgrade Philharmonic in my birth town. Returning to the city where I was born and sharing music here again fills me with immeasurable joy.
“What makes me especially happy is that the musicians of the Belgrade Philharmonic will be working with the students of the music school within the Mehli Mehta Music Foundation – and that these young musicians will stand side by side with the professionals on stage, performing together. This beautiful collaboration between experienced artists and the youngest generation of musicians is incredibly meaningful to me.”
The Belgrade Philharmonic holds a special place in Mehta’s legendary career as the orchestra that gave him his first professional opportunity back in 1958. Ahead of the first concert, a documentary film Da Capo: Zubin Mehta and the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, directed by Boris Miljković, will have its world premiere. Shot during Mehta’s visit to Belgrade in October 2024, the documentary explores the deep friendship between the conductor and the orchestra, told exclusively in Mehta’s own words as the film’s sole narrator.
