Our story

INICIO › Our story

The Foundation has its roots in 1999, when Barenboim and Said promoted in Weimar—European Capital of Culture that year—the creation of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, made up of young musicians from Arab countries, Israel, Palestine, and other regions of the world. The orchestra, conceived as a space for meeting and mutual respect amid contexts marked by conflict, was the first tangible step of a radical idea: that music can offer common ground where differences are not eliminated, but rather heard and understood.

The Founders

The impact of this vision was internationally recognized in 2002 with the Prince of Asturias Award for Concord to our founders for their example of intercultural collaboration and their commitment to peace and understanding through music. That same year, the Board of Andalusia proposed that the permanent headquarters of the Orchestra be established in its territory, a region whose history—especially during the Andalusian period—has been a global reference for coexistence among cultures and religions. Inspired by this historical legacy, the Barenboim-Said Foundation was established in 2004 with the mission of promoting musical education, artistic excellence, and the values of dialogue, tolerance, and reconciliation. Since then, the Foundation has developed educational programs, social projects, and cultural collaborations in multiple contexts, carrying forward the spirit of its founders: a spirit that continues to believe that, even in the most difficult moments, music can be a bridge where others see only borders.

DANIEL BARENBOIM

BUENOS AIRES, 1942

He made his debut as a pianist at the age of ten in Vienna and Rome, and as a conductor in 1967 with the Philharmonia Orchestra in London. Between 1975 and 1989, he was the principal conductor of the Paris Orchestra. From 1991 to 2006, he was the music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the artistic director of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan from 2011 to 2014. Since 1992, he has been the music director and artistic director of the Staatsoper Berlin.

EDWARD SAID

JERUSALEM, 1935 – NEW YORK, 2003

Graduated from Princeton University and earned a doctorate at Harvard, he taught English and comparative literature at Columbia University from 1963. Author of more than twenty books translated into thirty-five languages, including Orientalism (1978), The Palestinian Question (1979), Covering Islam (1980), The World, the Text, and the Critic (1983), and Parallels and Paradoxes: Reflections on Music and Society (2002, alongside Daniel Barenboim).

EDWARD SAID

JERUSALEM, 1935 – NEW YORK, 2003

Of all the arts, music is the least known by people in our days in the realm of general culture. A cultured person, a philosopher, for example, will be interested in literature, will know a lot about photography, painting, sculpture, theater, and yet will know nothing about music. I believe there is a kind of apartheid in relation to music, which is specific to our time. Music has always occupied a prominent place in society, at least in the Western society of the 19th century.

Graduated from Princeton University and earned a doctorate from Harvard, he taught English and comparative literature at Columbia University since 1963. He was the author of more than twenty books translated into thirty-five languages, including Orientalism (1978), The Palestinian Question (1979), Covering Islam (1980), The World, the Text, and the Critic (1983), and Parallels and Paradoxes: Reflections on Music and Society (2002, alongside Daniel Barenboim).

Said was not only a lover of music but also an excellent pianist. He wrote several books on music and was the music critic for the American magazine The Nation for years. Said often saw in music a reflection of his ideas about literature and history. The Barenboim-Said Foundation has collaborated with the Debate publishing house in the publication of some of his books in Spanish: Humanism and Democratic Critique (2006), Musical Elaborations: Essays on Classical Music (2007), Representations of the Intellectual (2007), On Late Style: Music and Literature Against the Grain (2009), Music at the Limit. Three Decades of Essays and Musical Articles (2011), and a revised edition of The Palestinian Question (2013).

In 1992, he was appointed a member of the UNESCO Forum of Wise Persons. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Society of Literature, the American Philosophical Society, and an honorary member of King’s College (University of Cambridge). He was a member of the executive council of the International PEN Club until 1998, and president of the Modern Language Association (MLA) in 1999. He was awarded numerous honorary doctorates around the world and received the Trilling Prize from Columbia twice, as well as the Wellek Prize from the American Comparative Literature Association. In 2002, he was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for Concord. In honor of Edward Said, in 2004 the National Conservatory of Music of Palestine changed its name to Edward Said National Conservatory of Music.

His widow, Mariam Said, has continued to spread the important legacy of Edward Said. She has been part of the board of the Barenboim-Said Foundation since its inception.

The friendship between Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said dates back to a chance meeting in the early nineties in the lobby of a London hotel.

The passion for music and ideas is, without a doubt, the force that unites them.

Ara Guzelimian

“I feel at home in the company of a few very close friends. And I must say that Edward has become, for me, that friend with whom I can share so many things, a soulmate. I always feel very much at home whenever I am with him.”

Daniel Barenboim