Zubin Mehta is the music director for life of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and main conductor for Valencia's Opera House. Nearly 2,000 guests attended the event, hosted by the German Embassy in the Shalimar Gardens in Srinagar.
It was the lifelong dream of Zubin Mehta's to perform in the beauty and serenity of the Shalimar Gardens. The garden is over 500m in length with natural waters running through the garden and then entering into the famous Dal Lake. A nineteenth century Mughal house was chosen as the backdrop, providing many additional challenges with the stage needing to be constructed across many different levels for the orchestra. Sound and Light Professionals (SNL Pro) debuted their new L-Acoustics K1 rig for this historic event.
The main array only had to cover 65m as the concert was for a very select audience. When the final venue layout was decided upon for this event it was sent to System Engineer, Bruce Rodericks, who used Soundvision to predict the required inventory. Two K1-SB were flown either side in throw mode over 6 K1, and 2 SB28's either side with three pairs of L-Acoustics 115XT HiQ as front-fills, were all that was required to achieve an even coverage for the outdoor location. Four LA-RAKs powered the system with 3 LA8s in each controlled by the LA network.
Jakob Palfrader, the front of house engineer for the Bavarian State Orchestra, was very pleased to see the K1. A last minute surprise addition to the event was a group of Kashmiri Musicians' who joined the Bavarian State Orchestra on stage and delivered a fusion performance called Haftrang which was only rehearsed one day prior to the show.
(Jim Evans)
