Zubin Mehta Quotations

I wish that only three residents of Tel Aviv could see what conditions on the West Bank are like. Living in such proximity, most Israelis have no idea about the adversity on the West Bank.

Just imagine, the thousands and thousands of concerts that take place every single day, all over the world. And the positive effect that they would have on the people listening. Now imagine a world without this. This void... it is unthinkable.

My father was a trained accountant, a BCom from Sydenham College and a self-taught violinist. In the 1920s, when he was in his teens, he heard a great violinist, Jascha Heifetz, and he was so inspired listening to him that he bought himself a violin, and with a little help from an Italian teacher, he learned to play it.

Rock music is predictable, unless theres great talent involved.

I love rap because it talks about pain that comes authentically from the ghetto. It moves me.

There are three orchestras in Munich, all world-quality, in a city of one million. Yet every hall is full.

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.

Indian hotels are doing well globally because they understand hospitality.

I knew at university that medicine was just not for me. I saved many lives by not being a doctor!

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.

All these people who scream about Kashmir being an armed camp are in fact responsible for keeping it that way.

There are certainly talented instrumentalists coming from India. I see them performing all over the world.

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

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

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

New York is really the place to be; to go to New York, you're going to the center of the world, the lion's den.

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.

I have had bullets flying at concerts, but I don't want to talk about that.

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

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 Brahms's four symphonies and Richard Strauss's tone poems.

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

Wagner's philosophy had absolutely nothing to do with Bruckner. Bruckner hadn't written a single word against Jews. Wagner's book on the Jews was one of the most infamous books of the 19th century.

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?

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.

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

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

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

Israel gives the West Bank water twice a week! One way of promoting good would be not to ration water.

I miss the standard of the New York Philharmonic's playing very much. It has certainly been a high point in my life.

If you can sing together, you can live together.

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

One learns how to change gears within a concert repertoire.

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

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

As soon as, say, Saddam Hussein started bombing Israel with Scuds, everyone was like, 'Poor Israel.' But when Israel retaliates - and most of the time they then win - people turn against them.

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

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.

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

As long as they keep building settlements, the world will be anti-Israeli.

I endeavor that all orchestras I conduct sound Central European.

We are so indebted to our ancestors, musically speaking, that they have left us 400 years of music.

American musicians are very giving - they have the highest standard in the world - but they are also very demanding in their conditions.

Critics do their job, and I take their criticism seriously.

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

I am not only a Parsi, I am a Kashmiri too.

I think conductors do spend too little time with their orchestras.

The 'New York Times' reviews of my work have been evenly divided - favourable and unfavourable.

The New York Philharmonic is a tremendous opportunity, a great orchestra.

You might say that Richard Wagner was the Queen Victoria of Europe. He had musical children everywhere!

I am an Indian, so I do yoga.

I am often critical of Israel's policies when in the country, but then feel defensive of them when overseas.

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

I sometimes feel it is to my disadvantage that I have not conducted the Cleveland Orchestra or the Boston or Chicago symphonies, but then I have had to sacrifice something in order to have enough time with my orchestras.

I have been to Kashmir many times, especially with my family, in the '70s.

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

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

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

I would convert to Judaism if the operation didn't hurt so much.

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

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

I've known Pinchas Zukerman since he was a teenager.

If North American musicians would only know how uncomfortable life is for European musicians.

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

Most Arab Israelis speak Hebrew, but not the other way around. It's about time that changed.

My family and relatives alone could fill Shanmukhananda Hall in Bombay.

New York for a long time was a kind of conductor's graveyard.

There are people who think I am Israeli. That's rubbish.

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 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.

Go to the young conductors who are not making it, and you will hear how we shouldn't push ourselves or sell ourselves, how they don't have the right connections and the right opportunities. Well, you can be sure they've had the opportunities.

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.

There was an opinion expressed in the newspapers that, after 20 years, maybe the Israel Philharmonic should consider asking me to leave. I thought they might have a point, so I asked my orchestra. They told me overwhelmingly that they wanted me to stay.

If we are able to inspire people with our music, we can raise more funds.

We have an opening for concertmaster, and we weren't able to find anybody in the last set of auditions. Would you be interested in coming and sitting with us for a month?

It is the technical part of the performance which is troubling me more than the musical part.

I pay my tributes to my dearest friend and the greatest musician of India Ravi Shanker. It has been a long time since we made music together. I will never forget the last time we worked together.

I don't want to hear this as a vice, really what we do with our money. She didn't need to steal from us.

The check comes home, she puts it in the bank, and we both spend.

...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.

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.

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.

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

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

Although I am flexible and ready to take advice, I can't carry an umbrella of thoughts over my head that would distract me and affect my music making.