Daniel Barenboim

Pianist, conductor, lecturer, and now peace envoy, Daniel Barenboim has put his unique musicianship to the service of not only the summits of Western classical music but also the most intractable problem of our times, the Arab-Israeli divide. From the piano prodigy, friend and colleague of the great players of his generation, still stunning audiences with his accounts of the Beethoven sonatas, he has developed into one of the leading conductors on the world stage, a dominant presence in the musical life of Berlin over the last two decades. At the same time, his reconciliatory impulse has had concrete results in the musical and educational projects of the cross-cultural Barenboim-Said Foundation.