Michael Barenboim

Biography

“The moment you create a beautiful sound, it’s worth every effort.”

This sentence by Michael Barenboim (*1985) sums up his artistic path so far. Soloist and chamber musician on violin and viola, ensemble founder, concertmaster of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, and professor at the Barenboim-Said Akademie: versatility and creativity are at the forefront of Barenboim's work.

Since his breakthrough as a soloist with Schönberg's Violin Concerto under the baton of Pierre Boulez in 2011, Michael Barenboim has been firmly anchored in the international concert scene and has since performed with outstanding conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Gustavo Dudamel and his father Daniel Barenboim. He has worked as a soloist with top rated orchestras, including Vienna philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Filarmonica della Scala, Philharmonia Orchestra London, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Orchestre de Paris, Spanish National Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Chicago Symphony.Solo recitals regularly take Michael Barenboim to the most famous international halls and to renowned concert series. He has performed at the Wigmore Hall in London, the Elphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Sydney Opera House, the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples and the Lucerne Festival. Featuring selected works by Pierre Boulez he played recitals at the Berlin Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall, the Konzerthaus Dortmund, the Barbican Centre London, the Opéra national de Paris and the Salzburg Festival.

In the 2026/27 season, Michael Barenboim will perform the Schönberg Violin Concerto with Concerto Budapest conducted by Andras Keller, the Erfurter Philharmonic Orchestra under the lead of Hermes Helfricht, the Sichuan Symphony Orchestra under the lead of Ni Fang, the English Chamber Orchestra as play/lead, as well as the Cairo Symphony Orchestra among other.

Together with the Nasmé Ensemble he will perform at the Kunstfest Corvey, the Beethovenfestival Bonn and the Boulez Saal Berlin. Further performances will take him to the Salle Cortot in Paris, the Grand Theatre de Provence, the Vevey Spring Classic Festival and the Intonations Festival Berlin.

Chamber music has been a major part of Michael Barenboim's concert activities not only since the founding of his West-Eastern Divan Ensemble at the beginning of 2020. The ensemble, which features selected members of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, has already undertaken highly successful tours of Asia, North America and Europe under his direction. With a newly founded ensemble of Palestinian musicians, Nasmé, Michael Barenboim is also making a contribution to increasing the visibility of Palestinian artists. Nasmé (نسمة) means breeze and it highlights their creativity and artistic talent.

He is part of Make Freedom Ring, a classical musicians collective that regularly organises charity concerts for Palestine in several cities across Europe. Furthermore, he is a member of the association of Palestinian and Jewish Academics (PJA) and co-curates a talk series called Kilmé Talks, platforming Palestinian artists and academics.

Michael Barenboim is deeply convinced that challenges can be found everywhere in the cosmos of music, the mastering of which opens up new perspectives on unknown and well-known pieces alike. This is why he is intensely involved in contemporary music: the interpretation of 20th and 21st Century pieces plays a major role in his work, both as a soloist with orchestra (Widmann, Dutilleux, Ligeti) and in chamber music. Michael Barenboim has already premiered numerous new compositions, including works by Jörg Widmann, Kareem Roustom, Matthias Pintscher and others.

But it is not only the contemporary music that finds space in his work: Michael Barenboim likes to keep his musical spirit alive with pieces from the most diverse periods. In addition to his intriguing concert programmes, his CD recordings also bear witness to this urge for constant renewal. On his last albums for Accentus, he devoted himself to works by Bach, Bartók, Boulez, Tartini, Berio, Paganini and Sciarrino. In addition, between 2018 and 2020, Deutsche Grammophon released Mozart's piano quartets and trios as well as the complete Beethoven piano trios together with Kian Soltani and Daniel Barenboim.

In September 2023 Michael Barenboim released a recording of Elgar's Violin Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra London conducted by Alessandro Crudele on Linn Records. Mendelssohn's “Songs without Words” (arrangement by Ferdinand David) with Natalia Pegarkova-Barenboim on the piano followed on the same label in spring 2024.

For Michael Barenboim, teaching does not only mean imparting perfect technique on the instrument; he is also particularly concerned with the universal education of his students at the Barenboim-Said Academy in various humanistic fields. After teaching for a long time and chairing the chamber music department, he currently holds a professorship for violin and ensemble playing. In 2020, he was also elected Dean of the Academy, a post he has held until February 2024.

Amendments to the biography may not be made on an independent basis.