Barenboim was born in Buenos Aires in Argentina. He started piano lessons when he was five. At first his mother taught him, but soon his father became his teacher and he remained the only piano teacher he had. When he was seven years old he gave a concert in Buenos Aires.
In 1952, the Barenboim family moved to Israel. In 1954 he went to Salzburg to take part in Igor Markevitch's conducting classes. There he met famous people such as Wilhelm Furtwängler whose conducting inspired him. Furtwängler was very impressed by the young boy and asked him to play Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, but his father did not want him to play in Berlin because it was too soon after the Nazis had murdered millions of Jews.
In 1955 Barenboim studied harmony and composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris.
Barenboim played the piano in Vienna and Rome in 1952, Paris in 1955, London in 1956. In 1957 he played in New York with Leopold Stokowski conducting. He then toured Europe, the United States, South America, Australia and the Far East. He made many recordings as a pianist.
In 1967 he conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra. Soon many orchestras wanted him to conduct them. Between 1975 and 1989 he was music director of the Orchestre de Paris, where he conducted a lot of music by 20th century composers.
He first conducted an opera in 1973 when he directed a performance of Mozart's "Don Giovanni" at the Edinburgh Festival. He made his first appearance at Bayreuth in 1981 and he often conducted there until 1999.
Barenboim was conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1991 to 2006.
Barenboim now lives in Berlin. He is the conductor of the "Staatsoper Unter den Linden" (Berlin State Opera) and the Berlin Staatskapelle. He is now conductor for life at the Berlin State Opera.
Barenboim has given many lectures about music including the Reith Lecture in 2006.
He was given the honour of conducting the world famous New Year's Day Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra on 1 January 2009.
In 2008 Barenboim first conducted at the Metropolitan Opera in New York at a performance of Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde".
Barenboim still performs as a pianist. In 2006 he played all Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas in the Royal Festival Hall, London in a series of concerts. In 2010 he played a series of concerts with the Berlin Staatskapelle, playing all Beethoven's piano concertos.
Barenboim has made many recordings including twice recording all Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas. He recorded a lot of chamber with his first wife, Jacqueline du Pré, the violinist Itzhak Perlman, and the violinist and violist Pinchas Zukerman. He has made many recordings as conductor, including all the symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner and Schumann, and many operas by Wagner.
Barenboim wrote a book called "Everything is Connected" in which he writes about music being a metaphor for life and society.
As well as the famous classical composers he has performed 20th century music, Baroque music and tangos from Argentina.
In 2001 he made many people in Israel angry because he conducted Wagner’s music at a concert there. Wagner was not allowed to be performed in Israel because he had been anti-Jewish. He changed the programme, but then decided to play some Wagner as an encore at the end of the concert. He spoke to the audience and said that anyone who did not want to hear the music could leave the hall. There was an argument for half an hour. In the end some people left, but most of them stayed and listened, and then applauded enthusiastically at the end.
Barenboim has given performances in the West Bank to show that he has sympathy with the Palestinians. The Israeli government told him it would be too dangerous to go to Ramallah, but he went into the town during the night to give a piano recital.
In 1999, Barenboim started the West-Eastern Divan orchestra with the help of a Palestinian-American professor Edward Said, who was a close friend.
The orchestra brings young musicians from Israel and Arab countries together every summer. They give concerts all over the world.
Barenboim has won many prizes and has been awarded many honorary degrees.
Daniel Barenboim married the famous British cellist Jacqueline du Pré at the Western Wall, Jerusalem in 1967. They gave concerts and made recordings together until Jacqueline became ill with multiple sclerosis and retired in 1973. There is a famous film by Christopher Nupen of them playing Schubert's "Trout Quintet" with Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman and Zubin Mehta.
Du Pré died in 1987. In 1988 Barenboim married the Russian pianist Elena Bashkirova. They have two sons. The younger son, Michael, is now a violinist and often performs with his father.
West-Eastern Divan Orchestra
The West-Eastern Divan is an orchestra for young people. It is based in Sevilla, Spain. The musicians in the orchestra come from Israel and its surrounding Arab countries.
The orchestra was started in 1999 by the Jewish conductor Daniel Barenboim and the Palestinian-American academic Edward Said (pronounce: Sah—eed). The name of the orchestra comes from a group of poems by the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra was started to help bring Israelis and Palestinians together to work for peace and to help solve the fight between Israel and Palestine. The idea was to let Israelis and Arabs work together in countries which had nothing to do with the conflict.
The first workshop of the orchestra took place in Weimar, Germany because it was the 1999 European cultural town. Barenboim chose two leaders for the orchestra: one Israeli and one Arab. They worked with some very famous musicians including the cellist Yo Yo Ma. In 2000 the orchestra met again in Weimar, in 2001 they met in Chicago. Since 2002 they have met every year in Seville.
The West-Eastern Divan Workshop takes place during several weeks each summer in Andalusia. After the workshop has finished, the orchestra travel to other places to give concerts. They have given concerts in many parts of Europe, North America, South America. In 2004 they performed an historic concert in Ramallah in Palestine. After the concert Barenboim said that the people of Israel and Palestine had a shared future. He said: “Either we all kill each other, or we share what there is to share. It is this message that we come here to bring."
In 2004, the Barenboim-Said Foundation, based in Seville, was started to help develop several education projects. Money is given for this by the Junta de Andalucía (Regional Government of Andalusia). The Foundation helps with the orchestra as well as with projects such as the Early Childhood Musical Education Project in Seville.
The orchestra has won prizes and made recordings. A film called "Knowledge is the Beginning" was made about them.
In August 2009 the orchestra will give three concerts at the BBC Proms including a concert performance of Beethoven’s opera Fidelio which has a story about people who have been put in prison for their political ideas.
Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra
The Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester (Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra) is a youth orchestra based in Vienna, Austria. It was started in 1986 by the conductor Claudio Abbado.
Auditions are held in many European capital cities. From the start it included people from Eastern Europe. This was before the collapse of the Iron Curtain. It is a very big orchestra. The musicians play music that needs a large orchestra, usually music from the late Romantic period or the 20th century.
The orchestra has been conducted by very famous conductors including Claudio Abbado, Mariss Jansons, Pierre Boulez and Bernard Haitink.
The orchestra played at the 2008 BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall in London with Sir Colin Davis conducting. They will be playing again at the Proms in September 2009 when they will perform Richard Strauss's huge work "Also sprach Zarathustra".
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