Daniel Barenboim

**Daniel Barenboim** (born Buenos Aires, 15 November 1942) is a pianist and conductor. He is a citizen of Argentina, Israel, Spain, and the Palestinian Authority.

Barenboim (meaning "pear tree" in Yiddish) was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina; his grandparents were Russian Ashkenazi Jews. At first he was famous as a pianist but now he is just as well known as a conductor. He is particularly important for his work with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra which works with young Arab and Israeli musicians. 

Barenboim has often criticized the illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land. In 2001 he made many people in Israel angry by conducting the music of Wagner in a concert. Wagner’s music had not been performed in Israel since 1938 because Wagner had been accused of being anti-Jewish and because he had been Hitler's favourite composer. However, Hitler and Wagner had not personally known each other, as the composer died in 1883 and Hitler was born in 1889.

## Life
### Career
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.

## References
## Other websites
* Daniel Barenboim official website