Editing Zubin Mehta (section)

==Early years and education==
Mehta was born into a [[Parsi]] family in [[Mumbai|Bombay (now Mumbai)]], India, during the [[British Raj]], the older son of [[Mehli Mehta|Mehli]] (1908–2002) and Tehmina (Daruvala) Mehta.<ref name=Opera/><ref>{{cite web|title=Those Nights in Nairobi|url=https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/those-nights-in-nairobi/290794|work=[[Outlook India]]|date=2 June 2014|first=Pranay|last=Sharma}}</ref> His native language is [[Gujarati language|Gujarati]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/culture/.premium-zubin-mehta-is-worried-israel-is-isolated-1.5437646|title=Zubin Mehta Is Worried: 'Israel Is Isolated'|first=Haggai|last=Hitron|date=23 April 2016|work=[[Haaretz]]}}</ref> His father was a self-taught [[violin]]ist who founded and conducted the Bombay Symphony Orchestra and later the [[American Youth Symphony]], which he conducted for 33 years after moving to Los Angeles. His father had previously lived in New York to study with violinist [[Ivan Galamian]], a noted teacher who also taught [[Itzhak Perlman]] and [[Pinchas Zukerman]]. His father returned to Bombay as an accomplished violinist of the Russian school. Mehta has said that on many occasions when he conducts in the U.S., someone approaches him to say, "You don't know how much I loved your father!"<ref name=Opera/>

Mehta has described his childhood as surrounded by music at home all the time, and has said he probably learned to speak Gujarati and sing around the same time. He says his father had a strong influence on him, and he listened to his quartet daily after his father returned from the US after the Second World War.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Tiwari |first1=Noopur |title=Zubin Mehta in Conversation |url=https://parsikhabar.net/india/zubin-mehta-in-conversation/1215/ |website=parsikhabar.net |date=29 September 2008 |access-date=14 October 2018}}</ref> Mehta was first taught to play violin and piano by his father. When he reached his early teens, his father allowed him to lead sectional rehearsals of the Bombay Symphony, and at sixteen, he was conducting the full orchestra during rehearsals.<ref name=Moritz>Moritz, Charles, editor. ''Current Biography Yearbook, 1969'', The H. W. Wilson Co., New York (1984) pp. 287–289</ref>

Mehta graduated from [[St. Mary's School, Mumbai]] and went on to study medicine at [[St. Xavier's College, Mumbai]], at the urging of his mother, who wanted him to take up a profession more "respectable" than music.<ref name=Moritz/> At age eighteen, he dropped out after two years to move to Vienna, one of Europe's music centers, in order to study music under [[Hans Swarowsky]] at the [[University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna|state music academy]].<ref name=Moritz/> He lived on $75 per month, and was a contemporary of conductor [[Claudio Abbado]] and conductor-pianist [[Daniel Barenboim]].

He remained at the academy for three years, during which time he also studied the [[double bass]], which he played in the [[Vienna Chamber Orchestra]].<ref name=Moritz/> Swarowsky recognized Mehta's abilities early on, describing him as a "demoniac conductor" who "had it all".<ref name=Time/> While still a student, after the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956]], he organized a student orchestra in seven days and conducted it in a concert at a refugee camp outside Vienna.<ref name=Time/>

Mehta graduated in 1957 when he was 21 with a diploma in conducting.<ref name=Moritz/> In 1958, he entered the Liverpool International Conductor's Competition with 100 contestants and took first prize. The prize included a year's contract as associate conductor of the [[Royal Liverpool Philharmonic]], which he conducted in 14 concerts, all of which received rave reviews.<ref name=Moritz/>

He then was a third-place prizewinner at the summer academy at the [[Tanglewood Music Center]] in Massachusetts.<ref name="Mehta">{{Cite web |title=Zubin Mehta: biography |url=http://www.zubinmehta.net/5.0.html |website=www.zubinmehta.net}}</ref> At that competition he attracted the notice of [[Charles Munch (conductor)|Charles Munch]], then the conductor of the [[Boston Symphony]], who later helped his career.<ref name=Moritz/> In 1958, he boldly programmed an all-Schoenberg concert, which did so well that he accepted further bookings.<ref name=Time/> That same year he also married a Canadian voice student, Carmen Lasky, whom he met in Vienna.<ref name=Time/>