Mehta's father, Mehli Mehta, a violinist, helped found the Bombay String Quartet and the Bombay Symphony Orchestra. Zubin was surrounded by Western music as a child, and at age 18 he began his music studies at the Vienna Academy of Music. In 1958 he won first prize in the Liverpool International Conducting Competition and became assistant conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic for a year. His reputation grew swiftly. He was musical director of the Montreal Symphony from 1961 to 1967, and he served in the same position for the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 1962 to 1978, making him the first conductor to direct two major North American orchestras simultaneously. In 1964 Mehta made his debut as an opera conductor with Giacomo Puccini (Puccini, Giacomo)'s Tosca in Montreal. The next year he conducted Giuseppe Verdi (Verdi, Giuseppe)'s Aida at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, and soon he was engaged to conduct opera in Vienna, London, Milan, and many other cities. In 1968 he became chief music adviser to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and in 1981 that orchestra named him music director for life.

Mehta was music director for the New York Philharmonic Orchestra from 1978 to 1991. In 1994 he conducted a number of memorable concerts, including a performance by the Sarajevo Symphony Orchestra and Chorus at the ruins of the Sarajevo National Library, and concerts by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in Mumbai and New Delhi. From 1998 through 2006 he was music director of the Bavarian State Opera and the Bavarian State Orchestra of Munich. He maintained close ties with major orchestras in Europe and the United States and earned many international awards and honours, including the Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime achievement in the arts (2006).