Bejun Mehta

His mother, Martha Ritchey Mehta of Altoona, Pennsylvania, was a soprano and journalist who worked in the development office of the University of Michigan Museum of Art, and she was her son's first voice teacher.

Of his CD for the Delos label in 1983 (Bejun DE 3019), Leonard Bernstein commented, "It is hard to believe the richness and maturity of musical understanding in this adolescent boy.

His production of Janos Starker’s final recording of Bach’s Cello Suites (BMG/RCA 61436) won the 1997 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance without orchestra.

[18] Mehta's operatic roles include, among many others: Orlando in Orlando, Tamerlano in Tamerlano, Giulio Cesare in Giulio Cesare, Bertarido in Rodelinda, Orfeo in Orfeo ed Euridice, Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Farnace in Mitridate, Didymus in Theodora, Hamor in Jephtha, Cyrus in Belshazzar, Arsamenes in Xerxes, Andronico in Tamerlano, Radamisto in Radamisto, Riccardo Primo in Riccardo Primo, Arsace in Partenope, Masha in Eötvös's Three Sisters, Ottone in Agrippina, and Emone in Antigone.

His main voice teachers have been Phyllis Curtin of Boston University (baritone) and Joan Patenaude-Yarnell of the Manhattan School of Music and Curtis Institute (countertenor).

[2] Mehta's CDs and DVDs also include Agrippina (BBC Music Magazine's 2012 Opera Award[20] and nominated for a Grammy as Best Opera Recording of the Year[6]) and Belshazzar, both on Harmonia Mundi, Theodora (C-Major Entertainment/Unitel, shortlisted for the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik[21]), Mitridate (Decca), Messiah (Unitel Classics), and Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream (Glyndebourne Label), George Benjamin’s Written on Skin (Nimbus CD, BBC Magazine 2014 Premiere Recording of the Year),[22] Benjamin's Written on Skin (Opus Arte DVD, 2013 Royal Opera House, 2014 Gramophone Award-Contemporary[3]).

Mehta's 2013 solo CD Che Puro Ciel (Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin/René Jacobs/Harmonia Mundi), a collection of classical arias and was awarded Le Diamant d’Opera Magazine,[citation needed] the Choc de Classica,[citation needed] and was shortlisted for the 2014 Gramophone Award in the Recital category.

[23] In 2014, Deutsche Grammophon/Archiv released a new complete studio recording of Orlando with Mehta in the title role (B’Rock/Jacobs), which was shortlisted for the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik.