Music maestro Zubin Mehta to get Germany's highest honour on Sunday

New Delhi, July 20(ANI): Western classical music maestro Zubin Mehta will be bestowed with Germany's highest honour, the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit, on Sunday, for his contribution to the field of classical music and for promoting bilateral relations between India and Germany.

German Ambassador to India Michael Steiner will play host during the investiture ceremony at his New Delhi residence.

Interacting with mediapersons here, Steiner termed it "a great honour" to felicitate Mehta, who he described as "a true world citizen."

"It is a great honour for me to award Zubin Mehta. Since decades, Zubin Mehta is not only one of the world's leading music directors, but also an outstanding cultural bridge builder between India and Germany. He is a true world citizen; at the same time, he has remained a true Indian," Steiner said.he Ambassador also called Mehta, who, last year, directed a concert in Berlin to support WWF's sustainability projects in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, "a living role model" who is always alive to social issues.

"He has never lost track of his commitment to social issues. Zubin Mehta is a living role model for initiative, creativity and vision," Steiner added.

From 1998 to 2006, Zubin Mehta was the admired music director of the Bavarian State Orchestra in Munich, and is credited with bringing the orchestra to India in 2005.

The Order of Merit is awarded for an exceptional political, socio-economic or intellectual performance and for eminent social, charitable or humanitarian merits for Germany.

Mehta has also been the recipient of the Order of Maxmilian in 2008. On October 2, 2011 he received the Echo Klassik in Berlin, for his life's work, while the Munich Philharmonic and the Berlin Philharmonic awarded him the title of 'Honorary Conductor' in 2004 and 2006 respectively.

Renowned Bharatnatyam dancer Alarmel Valli will also perform at the ceremony. Valli has also been associated with Germany for several years, and has performed at the Millennium festival in Berlin, the Frankfurt Alte Oper, the Munich Opera Festival, the Hammoniale Festival in Hamburg, the Spring Festival at Darmstadt and at the Silver Jubilee celebrations of Pina Bausch's Wuppertal Dance Theatre. (ANI)