Daniel Barenboim to Conduct Vienna Philharmonic Concert Tour

At the age of 11 Barenboim took part in conducting classes in Salzburg under Igor Markevich, and it was in that summer that he met and played for Furtwängler. Soon Barenboim was making a name for himself as one of the most versatile pianists of his generation.

At the same time he began to spend more time conducting, developing a close relationship with the English Chamber Orchestra which lasted over a decade. By the time of his London debut as conductor of the New Philharmonia Orchestra in 1967, he was in demand with all the leading orchestras of Europe and the USA. From 1991 until 2006 Barenboim was the principal conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and since 1992 has been the General Music Director of the State Opera Unter den Linden in Berlin.

Daniel Barenboim's debut with the Vienna Philharmonic took place in 1989, and he has since then been a regular guest. The current series begins with four concerts in Vienna, after which conductor and orchestra travel to concert appearances in Budapest, Oslo, Moscow, Valencia, Madrid, and finally at the annual Vienna Philharmonic Week in New York. Lang Lang performs Bartók's Piano Concerto No. 2 in the 6th subscription concerts and in Budapest and New York.

Daniel Barenboim has led a life guided by music, and has combined musical knowledge and talent with ideas and gestures that give his work significance beyond the concert hall. In 1999, Barenboim and the late Palestinian academic Edward Said founded the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, in which young musicians from the Middle East and Israel perform together. "Music is an art form which transcends all borders", he said when being awarded the Wolf Prize before the Israeli parliament. Among the many awards Barenboim has received was the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize in Vienna in 2006, where the foundation's board of trustees noted his "unifying efforts toward peace in the Middle East". - Vienna Philharmonic News