Understanding and comprehension between cultures, through music.
In the hall of Human Rights and the Alliance of Civilizations, Master Daniel Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan orchestra -made up of musicians from Palestina, Israel and diverse Arab countries- plays the Concerts for Human Rights.
Daniel Barenboim is the General Music Director of the Berlin Staatstoper. Born in Buenos Aires in 1942, he moved to Israel as a nine-year-old. Barenboim gave his first public concert at the age of seven; his international debut as solo pianist followed at the age of ten. “The eleven-year-old Barenboim,” Wilhelm Furtwängler remarked, “is a phenomenon”. Between 1975 and 1989, he led the Orchestra de Paris, from 1991 to 2006 the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
In 1999, together with his friend Edward Said, he founded the West-Eastern Divanb Orchestra of young israelí and arab musicians; the Barenboim-Said Academy Berlin will open its doors in 2016 for mostly Middle Eastern students with a curriculum in Music and the Humanities. Daniel Barenboim receives worldwide recognition for his work with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra with is reflected by many distinguished awards. Since 2007 Daniel Barenboim is UN messenger of peace.