Maestro Zubin Mehta will conduct the acclaimed orchestra on a tour of India.

When Zubin Mehta directed the Australian World Orchestra in 2013, conducting Mahler’s epic first symphony and Stravinksy’s The Rite of Spring, the critical praise was unanimously glowing. Now the great maestro is set to lead the AWO again in the orchestra’s first overseas tour to the conductor’s home country of India. This will not only be the AWO’s first time abroad but will also be the first time any Australian orchestra has toured India.

Made possible with the support of the Australian Government, the tour will include performances in Mumbai and New Delhi in October this year. For Mehta the experience of conducting the Australian World Orchestra, which is made up of the finest Australian musicians from the world’s greatest orchestras, was a profound one. “Conducting the AWO in Sydney and Melbourne in 2013 was indeed a great artistic experience for me,” the conductor said. “It is, therefore, with the greatest of joy that I have invited this ensemble, which I consider one of the world’s best, to my country.”

The AWO’s Artistic Director and Chief Conductor, Alexander Briger was equally delighted with the ongoing relationship between the orchestra and maestro Mehta. “For Zubin to invite us to tour his Indian homeland, where he has toured with the world’s greatest orchestras, is a great honour and testament to the quality of Australian classical musicians both here at home and around the world,” he said.