Bio:
Bejun Mehta, hailed as "possibly the most sophisticated and musically convincing countertenor" (Opera News, 2018), is a frequent guest artist at renowned opera and concert venues worldwide. His performances grace esteemed stages such as the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, State Opera Unter den Linden in Berlin, Bavarian State Opera, Nederlandse Opera, Théâtre Royal de La Monnaie, Zurich Opera House, Teatro Real Madrid, Opéra National de Paris, Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera Chicago, Theater an der Wien, as well as prestigious festivals like Salzburg, Glyndebourne, and Aix-en-Provence.
Bejun Mehta's musical journey extends to leading orchestras and solo recitals in major concert halls, where he presents award-winning CD programs spanning from Baroque to contemporary music. He is a regular presence at venues such as the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Wiener Musikverein, Carnegie and Zankel Hall in New York, Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Cité de la Musique Paris, and festivals including Edinburgh, Verbier, Schleswig-Holstein, and the BBC Proms in London.
In the 2019/10 season, Bejun Mehta took on the title role in Handel's Giulio Cesare at Teatro alla Scala in Milan, followed by a revival of Rodelinda at Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam. On the concert stage, he performed George Benjamin's Dream of the Song in Stockholm and presented a new song program at Teatro alla Scala and Heidelberger Frühling. A concert tour featuring Handel's Alessandro saw him travel to Paris, Göttingen, and Basel.
Notable past seasons include a Mozart Arien concert under Zubin Mehta with the Vienna Philharmonic in the Vienna Musikverein, conducting and solo performances with his Mozart – The Dramatist program alongside the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra in the Vienna Musikverein and the Herkulessaal in Munich. On the opera stage, Bejun Mehta assumed the title role in a new production of Handel's Tamerlano at La Scala in Milan, portrayed Oberon in a new production of Britten's A Midsummernight’s Dream at Theater an der Wien, and played Bertarido in Rodelinda at Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.
Twice nominated for the Grammy and a 1997 winner as a producer for Janos Starker's RCA-released Bach Cello Suites, Bejun Mehta boasts a rich discography of 25 recordings, including solo and opera works. His achievements encompass accolades such as the Echo Klassik (opera recording of the year), Diapason d’Or (twice), Diamant d’Opéra Magazine, Choc de Classica, Opera Award, Gramophone Award-Contemporary, and Edison Klassiek, as well as BBC Music Magazine Premiere Recording of the year. Television profiles of Bejun Mehta have aired on CBS 60 Minutes II, A&E, Arte, ARD, and ORF 2. Holding a degree in German Literature from Yale University, he resides in Berlin and New York.
Contact Information
Management/Booking:
Artist Management
KünstlerSekretariat am Gasteig
Montgelasstrasse 2
D-81679 München
Elisabeth Ehlers
Tel.: +49 89 4448879-0
Email: [email protected]
www.ks-gasteig.de
The Recôncavo is an almost invisible center-of-gravity. Circumscribing the Bay of All Saints, this region was landing for more enslaved human beings than any other such throughout all of human history. Not unrelated, it is also birthplace of some of the most physically & spiritually uplifting music ever made. —Sparrow
"Dear Sparrow: I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
—Susan Rogers: Personal recording engineer for Prince, inc. "Purple Rain", "Sign o' the Times", "Around the World in a Day"... Director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory
I'm Pardal here in Brazil (that's "Sparrow" in English). The deep roots of this project are in Manhattan, where Allen Klein (managed the Beatles and The Rolling Stones) called me about royalties for the estate of Sam Cooke... where Jerry Ragovoy (co-wrote Time is On My Side, sung by the Stones; Piece of My Heart, Janis Joplin of course; and Pata Pata, sung by the great Miriam Makeba) called me looking for unpaid royalties... where I did contract and licensing for Carlinhos Brown's participation on Bahia Black with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock...
...where I rescued unpaid royalties for Aretha Franklin (from Atlantic Records), Barbra Streisand (from CBS Records), Led Zeppelin, Mongo Santamaria, Gilberto Gil, Astrud Gilberto, Airto Moreira, Jim Hall, Wah Wah Watson (Melvin Ragin), Ray Barretto, Philip Glass, Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd for his interest in Bob Marley compositions, Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam and others...
...where I worked with Earl "Speedo" Carroll of the Cadillacs (who went from doo-wopping as a kid on Harlem streetcorners to top of the charts to working as a janitor at P.S. 87 in Manhattan without ever losing what it was that made him special in the first place), and with Jake and Zeke Carey of The Flamingos (I Only Have Eyes for You)... stuff like that.
Yeah this is Bob's first record contract, made with Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd of Studio One and co-signed by his aunt because he was under 21. I took it to Black Rock to argue with CBS' lawyers about the royalties they didn't want to pay. They paid.
MATRIX MUSICAL
The Matrix was built below among some of the world's most powerfully moving music, some of it made by people barely known beyond village borders. Or in the case of Sodré, his anthem A MASSA — a paean to Brazil's poor ("our pain is the pain of a timid boy, a calf stepped on...") — having blasted from every radio between the Amazon and Brazil's industrial south, before he was silenced. (that's me left, with David Dye & Kim Junod for U.S. National Public Radio) ... The Matrix started with Sodré, with João do Boi, with Roberto Mendes, with Bule Bule, with Roque Ferreira... music rooted in the sugarcane plantations of Bahia. Hence our logo (a cane cutter).