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2024 Randy Smith Lecturer

Nuvi Mehta
San Diego Symphony
Special Project Director

Widely considered one of the finest speakers on classical music, Nuvi Mehta
has a gift for capturing the mind and heart of every person in his audience.
The L.A. Times likens him to Gary Cooper, saying, “His old-fashioned
Hollywood charisma extends to an eloquent and theatrical way of speaking
that is almost entirely lost today.” Combining education and drama in his
concerts, Mehta is creating new generations of classical music lovers.
As Artistic Director of the Ventura Music Festival Association, Mehta has
expanded the range of festival concerts, adding community outreach, On
Stage Talks and Up Close events with artists. Mehta is also Artistic Director
of the ECHO Chamber Music Series in San Diego, which brings many of the
world’s leading classical musicians to San Diego’s East County.
Appointed Director of Special Projects for the San Diego Symphony in 2006,
Mehta launched the Symphony’s Classical Edge Series - multi-media
concerts, introducing new patrons to ‘the stories behind the notes’. The
series developed a large dedicated following, with Mehta’s on stage
demonstrations and talks drawing up to 1000 patrons a night.
Conducting appearances have taken Mehta across the United States, to
Europe and to Mexico. He has been a guest of the San Diego Symphony, the
New World Symphony the Knoxville Symphony, the Fine Arts Chamber
Orchestra of Mexico City, and the San Diego Chamber Orchestra. He has
appeared as violin soloist with the San Diego Symphony, the Marquette
Symphony, the Ann Arbor Symphony, the San Diego Chamber Orchestra, the
American Youth Symphony, and as concertmaster and soloist with the New
World Symphony.
Mehta is a graduate of Indiana University and The Juilliard School.