Conductor Zubin Mehta and his wife Nancy Mehta have donated $1 million in Tesla shares to the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.

The announcement was made on Jan. 22 during an event in which the company revealed that its theater would bear Mehta’s name.

“My wife was so moved when she heard about the title – Master Mehta intervened – that she decided to make part of our Tesla shares available to the theater so that the superintendent and the mayor can use them as they see fit. She had already thought she could support the Maggio but this gesture pushed her to put her project into practice,” Mehta stated in an official statement. “My wife and I hope our donation will be useful and we both hope this will inspire others, Italians and foreigners, to donate to Maggio, Italy and Florence, and the Government to give the opportunity to deduct these sums from taxes as happens in America; we do it for Florence, for May and we are happy to do it; in America we have never done such a thing. ”

Mehta’s association with the company began in 1961 when he appeared as a guest conductor. He would become the music director of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in 1985 and would hold the position until 2017.