Daniel Barenboim

Daniel Barenboim is a prolific recording artist and internationally known conductor. He was born in Buenos Aires and grew up in Israel. He has been Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since 1991 and of the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin since 1992. He has led the Berliner Philharmoniker and has also established close relationships with the Vienna Philharmonic with whom he often tours. Daniel Barenboim began conducting with the New Philharmonic Orchestra in London in 1967 and was musical director of the Orchestre de Paris from 1975 to 1989. Along with the late Edward Said, Barenboim created, in 1999, the West-Eastern Divan Workshop and Orchestra, for which they jointly received Spain’s prestigious Prince of Asturias Concord Prize in October 2002. The West-Eastern Divan Workshop has been based in Seville, Spain since 2002 and has brought together young Jewish and Arab musicians to combine periods of musical study with reflection about Israeli/Palestinian problems. Also in August 2003, Mr. Said and Mr. Barenboim announced their plan to create the first Palestinian youth symphony orchestra through their Barenboim-Said Cultural Foundation. Daniel Barenboim is the author of his expanded autobiography, Daniel Barenboim, A Life in Music (2002), and Parallels and Paradoxes: Explorations in Music and Society (Pantheon, 2002), a series of dialogues and conversations written together with Edward Said.