Contact:
Lesley Bannatyne
617.495.2791
Barenboim Delivers Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard
Cambridge, Mass. - August 15, 2006 - World-renowned conductor, pianist and recording artist Daniel Barenboim will deliver the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures beginning September 25th. The set of six lectures is entitled Sound and Thought.
Most recently music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (his 15-year tenure ended in June), and General Music Director of the Deutsche Staatsoper, Berlin, Barenboim's career has spanned more than 50 years. He is best known as a musical "bridge builder," and has been honored both for his virtuosity as a musician and for his work towards peace in the Middle East.
Barenboim made his debut as a pianist in Vienna and Rome in 1952, in Paris in 1955, in London in 1956, and in New York in 1957 with Leopold Stokowski conducting the Symphony of the Air. From then on, he made annual concert tours of the United States and Europe and soon became known as one of the most versatile pianists of his generation. He recorded the most important works in the piano repertory, including complete cycles of the piano sonatas of Mozart and Beethoven and concertos by Mozart, Beethoven (with Otto Klemperer), Brahms (with Sir John Barbirolli) and Bartok (with Pierre Boulez). Barenboim went on to become music director of the Orchestre de Paris, and then to the posts he currently holds. In 2000, the Staatskapelle Berlin appointed him chief conductor for life. In 2006 he was named Maestro Scaligero at La Scala, Milan, where he will next perform Verdi's Requiem in November 2007, and a Wagner Ring cycle in 2010/2011. He also appears regularly with the Berlin Philharmonic and Vienna Philharmonic orchestras. In February 2003, Mr. Barenboim won a Grammy for his recording of Wagner's Tannhäuser and he and the Staatskapelle Berlin received the Wilhelm Furtängler Prize.
An Israeli Jew, Barenboim worked closely over many years with Palestinian-born writer and Columbia University professor Edward Saïd who died in 2003. Sharing a vision of Israeli/Palestinian peaceful co-existence in the Middle East, they collaborated on several musical events, such as Barenboim's first concert on the West Bank, and the creation of the West-Eastern Divan Workshop, where talented young musicians from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Tunisia and Israel came together to make music on neutral ground. Barenboim and Saïd received Spain's prestigious 2002 Prince of Asturias Concord Prize for this work. Barenboim was awarded the Tolerance Prize by the Protestant Academy of Tutzing 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.
Barenboim was appointed the 2006 Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard University last spring.
The Norton Lectures-a set of six talks-will take place at 4:30 pm daily, Monday through Friday, September 25 through September 29th, and on Tuesday, October 3rd. They will all be given at Harvard's Sanders Theatre with the exception of the talk on Friday, September 29, which will take place in John Knowles Paine Concert Hall. All lectures are free and open to the public. No tickets are required. Both locations are wheelchair-accessible. For information: 617-495-2791. www.music.fas.harvard.edu/calendar.html
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