Lahav Shani

Watching Lahav Shani online, making his debut in 2013 as a conductor for the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO), makes for a study of the finest traits of human behaviour. Around 100 musicians 30 to 40 years his senior hang on to every hand movement, every expression of the 24-year-old's, waiting to put their heart and soul into their instrument when he gives them their cue. And Shani looks at them after the concert ends to thunderous applause with a smile and a nod of the head that seems to convey both his satisfaction and immense gratitude. For, these very musicians had coaxed him into conducting them. They had together urged the mighty Zubin Mehta to give the prodigy a chance. And such has his progress been that now, less than five years later, Shani is slated to take over from Mehta as IPO's music director from 2020-21. Mehta will be 83 years old then. Shani, today, is still just 29.