Daniel Barenboim
Daniel Barenboim has made music his life's calling, and through that calling, he has reached out across some of the widest gulfs separating people in the world today. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1942, Barenboim started studying piano at the age of five, performing in public by the age of seven. His musical studies continued after the family moved to Israel in 1954, studying with Igor Markevitch in Salzburg and Nadia Boulanger in Paris. His public performance career as a pianist proceeded in parallel, with concerts in all the major capitals of the world through the fifties. In 1967, Barenboim made his debut as a conductor with the London Philharmonia orchestra, a career development which quickly gained him recognition on par with his piano performances. This same year, he married cellist Jacqueline du Pré. Despite turbulent patches in their marriage, the relationship yielded brilliant musical collaborations, which were tragically cut short by the rapid progression of du Pré's multiple sclerosis, which resulted in her death in 1987. In his work as a conductor, Barenboim has been unafraid to challenge established custom and barriers: in 2001, he led the Berlin Staatskapelle in performing Wagner's music in Jerusalem, confronting what had to that point been an unofficial ban of Wagner's music in Israel. He has also worked on creating a bridge between Israel and the Palestinian people, founding the West-Eastern Divan orchestra with Palestinian-American writer and activist Edward Said to bring together classical musicians from both sides of the divide.
