Biography

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“The moment you create a beautiful sound, it’s worth every effort.”

This sentence by Michael Barenboim (*1985) sums up his artistic path so far. Soloist and chamber musician on violin and viola, ensemble founder, concertmaster of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, and professor at the Barenboim-Said Akademie: versatility and creativity are at the forefront of Barenboim's work.

Since his breakthrough as a soloist with Schönberg's Violin Concerto under the baton of Pierre Boulez in 2011, Michael Barenboim has been firmly anchored in the international concert scene and has since performed with outstanding colleagues, including the Vienna Philharmonic under Daniel Barenboim, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Asher Fisch, the Israel Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta, the Berlin Philharmonic under Vasily Petrenko and the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel. He has also worked as a soloist with orchestras such as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Filarmonica della Scala, Philharmonia Orchestra London, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Orchestre de Paris and the Spanish National Orchestra.

Solo recitals regularly take Michael Barenboim to the most famous international halls and to renowned concert series. He has performed at the Wigmore Hall in London, the Elphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Sydney Opera House, the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples and the Lucerne Festival. Featuring selected works by Pierre Boulez he played recitals at the Berlin Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall, the Konzerthaus Dortmund, the Barbican Centre London, the Opéra national de Paris and the Salzburg Festival.

In the 2024/25 season, Michael Barenboim will perform as a soloist with the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Domingo Hindoyan, the Frankfurt Museum Orchestra conducted by Thomas Guggeis, the Jena Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Simon Gaudenz, the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn conducted by Risto Joost, the Orquesta Fundación Barenboim-Said conducted by Oksana Lyniv, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra conducted by Wilson Hermanto and the Armenian Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sergey Smbatyan. He will also be returning to the Verbier Festival as a soloist with the viola for Strauss' Don Quixote under the direction of Lahav Shani and together with cellist Alisa Weilerstein.

Chamber music has been a major part of Michael Barenboim's concert activities not only since the founding of his West-Eastern Divan Ensemble at the beginning of 2020. The ensemble, which features selected members of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, has already undertaken highly successful tours of Asia, North America and Europe under his direction. With a newly founded ensemble of Palestinian musicians, Michael Barenboim is also making a contribution to increasing the visibility of Palestinian artists. Nasmé (نسمة) means breeze and it highlights their creativity and artistic talent.

Michael Barenboim is deeply convinced that challenges can be found everywhere in the cosmos of music, the mastering of which opens up new perspectives on unknown and well-known pieces alike. This is why he is intensely involved in contemporary music: the interpretation of 20th and 21st Century pieces plays a major role in his work, both as a soloist with orchestra (Widmann, Dutilleux, Ligeti) and in chamber music. Michael Barenboim has already premiered numerous new compositions, including works by Jörg Widmann, Kareem Roustom, Matthias Pintscher and others.

But it is not only the contemporary music that finds space in his work: Michael Barenboim likes to keep his musical spirit alive with pieces from the most diverse periods. In addition to his intriguing concert programmes, his CD recordings also bear witness to this urge for constant renewal. On his last albums for Accentus, he devoted himself to works by Bach, Bartók, Boulez, Tartini, Berio, Paganini and Sciarrino. In addition, between 2018 and 2020, Deutsche Grammophon released Mozart's piano quartets and trios as well as the complete Beethoven piano trios together with Kian Soltani and Daniel Barenboim.

In September 2023 Michael Barenboim released a recording of Elgar's Violin Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra London conducted by Alessandro Crudele on Linn Records. Mendelssohn's “Songs without Words” (arrangement by Ferdinand David) with Natalia Pegarkova-Barenboim on the piano followed on the same label in spring 2024.

For Michael Barenboim, teaching does not only mean imparting perfect technique on the instrument; he is also particularly concerned with the universal education of his students at the Barenboim-Said Academy in various humanistic fields. After teaching for a long time and chairing the chamber music department, he currently holds a professorship for violin and ensemble playing. In 2020, he was also elected Dean of the Academy, a post he has held until February 2024.

Amendments to the biography may not be made on an independent basis.

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