Homenagem

The first Edward Said Memorial Lecture on campus at Columbia University at Miller Theatre

Barenboim on "Wagner, Israel and Palestine"
Location US::NYC::Columbia University
Contact Camille Cooke, Miller Theatre, 212-854-2382, cc2445@columbia.edu
Description DANIEL BARENBOIM TO SPEAK ON
"WAGNER, ISRAEL, AND PALESTINE"

NEW YORK, NY - World-renowned musician and humanitarian Daniel Barenboim discusses "Wagner, Israel, and Palestine," at the first Edward Said Memorial Lecture on campus at Columbia University at Miller Theatre, Monday, January 24, 2005, at 8 p.m. This free event is open to the public and sponsored by the Heyman Centre for the Humanities and Miller Theatre on behalf of Columbia University.

Edward Said, the late Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, was among the most influential intellectuals of the last hundred years, a renowned literary critic and, according to the Guardian, "the most articulate and visible advocate of the Palestinian cause in the United States."

The first Edward Said Memorial Lecture is given by his close friend and collaborator, Barenboim, with whom Said founded the West Eastern Divan Workshop, an orchestra and school that brings together Israeli, Palestinian and other Arab musicians to play music and to help bring understanding and peace in an area of bitter conflict and chronic injustice.

"Like Said, Barenboim's humanity stretches far beyond his chosen field of accomplishment and Columbia feels greatly privileged to have him here this evening," said Akeel Bilgrami, Johnsonian Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Heyman Centre for the Humanities at Columbia University. "The subject he will speak on reflects their mutual ambition to see music and culture as being 'worldly' pursuits in the best sense of that word --situated in and speaking to the large public issues of our time."

Daniel Barenboim was born in Buenos Aires in 1942 to parents of Jewish Russian descent and moved to Israel in 1952. He made his concert debut as a pianist in Vienna and Rome in 1952. From then on, he made annual concert tours of the United States and Europe and became known as one of the most versatile pianists and conductors of his generation.

He has been the Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since 1991 and became General Music Director of the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin in 1992. In the autumn of 2000, the Staatskapelle Berlin appointed him Chief Conductor for Life. He also appears regularly with the Berlin Philharmonic and Vienna Philharmonic orchestras. He has been associated with the Bayreuth Festival since 1981, leading performances of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, Parsifal and the complete Ring cycle. In February 2003, Barenboim won a Grammy for his recording of Wagner's Tannhäuser and in March 2003, he and the Staatskapelle Berlin received the Wilhelm Furtwängler Prize.

In October 2002, Barenboim and Said jointly received Spain's prestigious Prince of Asturias Concor Prize for their work in founding the West Eastern Divan Workshop. In November 2002, Barenboim was awarded the Tolerance Prize by the Protestant Academy of Tutzing, in southwestern Germany, for his efforts to bring Palestinians and Israelis together through music. The same month the president of Germany awarded him the Grosses Bundesverdienstkreuz, the highest honor given to someone who is not a head of state. In 2004, Barenboim received the Buber-Rosenzweig Medal, the Wolf Prize for the Arts in the Knesset in Jerusalem and the Haviva Reik Peace Award.

Barenboim is the author of the newly-expanded A Life in Music, and co-author of Parallels and Paradoxes: Explorations in Music and Society, a series of conversations between Barenboim and Said.

This event is free and open to the public.

For more information please contact the Miller Theatre Box Office at 212-854-7799.

Columbia University's Miller Theatre is located north of the Main Campus Gate at 116th Street and Broadway on the Ground Floor of Dodge Hall.

For further information, press tickets, and to arrange interviews, please contact Camille Cooke, Miller Theatre, 212-854-2382, cc2445@columbia.edu