Concerts

The Barenboim-Said Foundation Orchestra is made up of students from the Academy of Orchestral Studies, and its activities are the result of the work carried out at this center for artistic and technical excellence. The annual academic program includes an orchestral workshop and symphonic concerts as part of the comprehensive musical training offered at the Academy. The orchestral experience is one of the pillars of the Academy: in addition to providing young students with valuable experience in instrumental practice as members of an orchestra, it also offers them the opportunity to work with renowned conductors and soloists. In recent years, maestros of the stature of Vasily Petrenko, Pablo Heras-Casado, Juanjo Mena, Nuno Coelho, and Oksana Lyniv have conducted the Orchestra.

Likewise, international soloists such as pianists Javier Perianes and Denis Kozhukhin, and violinists Amaury Coeytaux and Michael Barenboim have given concerts alongside the Academy’s students.

The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra was founded in 1999 by Argentine-Israeli musician Daniel Barenboim and Palestinian intellectual Edward Said. It began as a workshop where young musicians from Israel and Arab countries in the Middle East could develop their musical training in an environment of coexistence and intercultural enrichment. Today, the West-Eastern Divan is an international benchmark in the defense of values such as peace and tolerance through the universal language of music.

The first editions of the West-Eastern Divan took place in Weimar (1999) and Chicago (2000 and 2001), and since 2002, thanks to the support of the Regional Government of Andalusia, the Orchestra has brought its orchestral workshop and concerts to Andalusia, as well as adding Spanish and Andalusian musicians to the project, which has already given concerts in all the provinces of Andalusia. Currently, the Daniel Barenboim Stiftung in Berlin manages the activities of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.