Daniel Barenboim

Daniel Barenboim (born November 15, 1942, Buenos Aires, Argentina) is an Israeli pianist and conductor who was noted for—apart from his musical talents—his bold efforts to promote peace through music in the Middle East. As a pianist, Barenboim was admired particularly for his artistic interpretations of the works of Mozart and Beethoven. As a conductor, he was recognized especially for his leadership of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Barenboim’s parents were both pianists, and his father, Enrique Barenboim, was also a noted music professor. The family moved from Argentina to Salzburg, Austria, when Daniel was nine and then on to Israel in 1952. Barenboim had already debuted as a pianist at age seven, and in Europe he became known as something of a child prodigy. He made his debut in London (with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) in 1956 and in the United States (at Carnegie Hall) in 1957. As a pianist, he became especially known for his somewhat colourful interpretations of the works of Mozart, Beethoven, and other Classical and Romantic composers.

Barenboim started conducting professionally in 1962, first in Israel and then in Australia with the Melbourne and Sydney symphony orchestras. He thereafter was guest conductor in several cities in European countries as well as in Israel and the United States. He served as music director of the Orchestre de Paris from 1975 to 1989. In 1987 he signed to become musical and artistic director of the new Bastille Opera in Paris, but he fell into disputes with representatives of the socialist government in Paris and was dismissed (in January 1989) before the first season was to commence, in 1990. Almost immediately, in January 1989, he accepted the post of music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in succession to Sir Georg Solti. Barenboim took over his full duties as music director there when Solti retired in 1991, and he held the post until 2006. He also became music director of the Berlin State Opera in 1992. In Jerusalem in 2001 Barenboim sparked controversy by conducting the Prelude to the opera Tristan und Isolde by Richard Wagner; Wagner’s music had been unofficially banned in Israel because of his anti-Semitic beliefs and the fact that he was Adolf Hitler’s favourite composer. Barenboim also conducted Tristan und Isolde when he made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in 2008.

Believing that music could improve relations in the Middle East, Barenboim in 1999 cofounded (with Palestinian American political activist and literary scholar Edward Said) the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, which featured Arab and Israeli musicians. In 2009 he performed for the first time in Egypt, conducting the Cairo Symphony Orchestra. Barenboim wrote several books, including the autobiography A Life in Music (1991) and Music Quickens Time (2008), a collection of essays. In 2007 he received the Japan Art Association’s Praemium Imperiale prize for music.