Barenboim and Divan Orchestra take “Beethoven For All” to US (Jan 23–Feb 3)
This month, eminent pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim returns to the United States for a rare American appearance with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, the lauded ensemble that he founded in 1999 with the late Palestinian literary scholar Edward W. Said, which comprises young musicians from Israel, Palestine, and other Arab countries. Culminating in four concerts at New York’s Carnegie Hall (Jan 30-Feb 3), during which Barenboim will lead the orchestra in a complete cycle of Beethoven’s nine symphonies, the tour also includes the orchestra’s debut performance at Boston’s Symphony Hall (presented by the Celebrity Series of Boston, Jan 27), as well as concerts and talks at two Ivy League universities: Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island (Jan 23-28) and Columbia University in New York City (Feb 1). In advance of the Carnegie Hall concerts, two free events are being presented in New York City to celebrate the Divan’s arrival. Symphony Space hosts a screening of the Emmy Award-winning documentary about the orchestra, Knowledge Is the Beginning (Jan 27), and NPR Music and WQXR 105.9 FM present Barenboim and members of the Divan in an eclectic chamber music program at the downtown venue (Le) Poisson Rouge (Jan 29). While the orchestra appears frequently throughout Europe during its annual summer tour, the early 2013 dates mark only its second tour to America. The performances are part of the orchestra’s multi-year “Beethoven for All” tour, which seeks to take the composer’s message of common humanity to audiences around the world.
Daniel Barenboim and Edward W. Said created the original West-Eastern Divan Orchestra workshop in 1999 with the aim of fostering intercultural exchange between Israelis and Arabs and creating an opportunity for them to work together on a matter of common interest: music-making at the highest level. The founders named the orchestra and workshop after a collection of poems by German scholar and author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe titled West-Eastern Divan, which Barenboim and Said considered a central work in the evolution of the concept of world culture.
Over the years, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra has matured into a world-class ensemble, performing at leading international concert halls and music festivals and releasing a number of critically acclaimed recordings. In 2006, the orchestra made its New York debut at Carnegie Hall. Maestro Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan last performed the full Beethoven symphony cycle in July 2012 at the BBC Proms as part of the London 2012 Festival, the cultural celebrations of the Olympic Games. To coincide with the Proms appearances, Decca released a box set recording of Barenboim leading the orchestra in all nine symphonies, titled Beethoven for All: Symphonies 1-9. Launched in 2010 at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the orchestra’s “Beethoven for All” tour will have spanned four continents by 2013.
Residency at Brown University
Brown University hosts Daniel Barenboim and the young musicians of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra from January 23 through 28. The residency begins with a performance of Palestine, a play by Najla Said, daughter of Edward W. and Mariam C. Said, on January 23. Brown’s Cogut Center for the Humanities and the Center for Middle East Studies will present two campus conversations that engage the university community with the work of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. “Dissonance and Harmony: A Conversation” on Thursday, January 24 brings together Daniel Barenboim and Mariam C. Said for a conversation with Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish (University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health; founder, The Daughters for Life Foundation; author of I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor’s Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity) and Miko Peled (peace activist and author of The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine). On Friday, January 25, “Dissonance and Harmony: The Arab-Israeli Conflict Through Music and Academic Discourse” at the Granoff Center for the Performing Arts presents an informal discussion and audience talk-back with orchestra members and the Brown University community, followed by an evening of food, socializing, and live entertainment. During their residency, Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra perform two concerts at Veterans Memorial Auditorium: Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos. 2 and 3 on January 26, and Symphonies Nos. 1, 8, and 5 on January 28.
Boston Debut
On January 27, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra makes its Boston debut in a single appearance at Symphony Hall presented by the Celebrity Series of Boston. For this concert, Daniel Barenboim leads the orchestra in Beethoven’s Second and Third Symphonies.
New York Concerts and Events
The orchestra’s Carnegie Hall series begins on Wednesday, January 30 at 8pm with Maestro Barenboim conducting Beethoven’s First, Fifth, and Eighth Symphonies. The Third and Fourth Symphonies follow on Thursday, January 31 at 8pm. On Saturday, February 2 at 8pm the orchestra performs the Sixth and Seventh Symphonies before concluding the cycle on Sunday, February 3 at 2pm, with the Second and Ninth Symphonies. The all-star quartet for the performance of the “Choral” symphony comprises soprano Diana Damrau, mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey, tenor Piotr Beczała, and bass René Pape. They are joined by the Westminster Symphonic Choir under the direction of Joe Miller. The Barenboim-Said Foundation USA will host a benefit reception with Daniel Barenboim, Mariam C. Said, and members of the orchestra in the Shorin Club room at Carnegie Hall immediately after the concert on Saturday; tickets to the reception are available by calling (347) 689-9429.
The final concert on February 3 will be aired on WQXR 105.9 FM: New York’s classical music radio station and on stations nationwide as part of the Carnegie Hall Live broadcast and digital series, produced by WQXR and Carnegie Hall in collaboration with American Public Media and hosted by WQXR’s Jeff Spurgeon and American Public Media’s Fred Child. Concerts in the series are available for live streaming on wqxr.org and carnegiehall.org/wqxr. During every live broadcast, WQXR, Carnegie Hall, and digital partner NPR Music host live web chats – including Twitter commentary by the broadcast team – from backstage and in the control room, connecting national and international fans to the music and to each other.
A couple of days before the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra’s New York performances, Symphony Space will offer a free screening on Sunday, January 27 at 5:30pm of the Emmy Award-winning documentary Knowledge is the Beginning by director Paul Smaczny. This opportunity to discover the work of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra also includes a Q & A session with Syrian clarinetist Kinan Azmeh, Israeli pianist Shai Wozner, and former Barenboim-Said Foundation Press and Communications Manager Nicole Foster, all of whom have been extensively involved with the ensemble over the years. Entrance is free, and tickets are available on a first-come first-served basis.
In another free event to kick off their New York residency, members of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and Daniel Barenboim appear at Greenwich Village’s (Le) Poisson Rouge on Tuesday, January 29, presenting an eclectic evening of music from the Western classical and Middle Eastern traditions. Featured performers on this program include two rising stars of the Divan who are quickly gaining international reputations as soloists: clarinetist Kinan Azmeh and violinist Michael Barenboim, Maestro Barenboim’s youngest son. The concert will be webcast live online by NPR Music at www.npr.org/music and by WQXR 105.9 FM: New York’s classical music radio station at www.wqxr.org. Ticket information will be announced online by the co-presenters – NPR Music, WQXR, and (Le) Poisson Rouge – on January 14. Doors open at 7pm, and the concert and live video webcast begin at 8pm.
On Friday, February 1, Columbia University’s Institute for Comparative Literature and Society and Brown University’s Cogut Center for the Humanities present a symposium on the legacy of Edward W. Said at the Miller Theatre at Columbia University. Said, who served as Columbia’s University Professor of English and Comparative Literature, passed away ten years ago. The event includes a conversation between Daniel Barenboim and Ara Guzelimian (Provost and Dean of the Juilliard School), as well as a performance by Barenboim and members of the orchestra of works by Pierre Boulez, Franz Schubert, and Kinan Azmeh. Tickets for the 7pm conversation and 8pm performance are available from the Miller Theatre box office. Earlier in the afternoon, from 4pm to 6pm, there will be a free panel discussion on “Edward Said’s Music” with Kinan Azmeh (clarinetist, WEDO alumnus), Stathis Gourgouris (Professor of Classics and Director of the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society, Columbia University), Ara Guzelimian, Ilham Khuri-Makdisi (Associate Professor of Middle East and World History, Northeastern University), and Michael Steinberg (Director of Cogut Humanities Center; Barnaby Conrad & Mary Critchfield Keeney Professor of History and Professor of Music, Brown University).
About Daniel Barenboim
Daniel Barenboim is one of the most compelling figures in the music world today. As well as being renowned as a conductor and pianist, he is a noted author, lecturer, and public intellectual whose work aims to foster an appreciation for music’s vital humanity in an increasingly interdependent world. Serving as music director of the Staatsoper Berlin, Staatskapelle Berlin, and the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the maestro is also in great demand with leading orchestras and opera houses around the world. In 1999, he and the late Palestinian literary scholar Edward W. Said co-founded the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, which brings together musicians from Israel, Palestine, and other Arab countries to perform music and promote reflection and mutual understanding. Barenboim’s prodigious career as a symphonic and operatic conductor and as a solo and collaborative pianist has included more than 90 recordings, eight Grammy Awards, music directorships with the Orchestre de Paris and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, as well as frequent performances at the Bayreuth Festival. Born in Buenos Aires in 1942, Barenboim moved to Israel at the age of ten and presently holds citizenship of Argentina, Israel, Palestine, and Spain.
In November 2012, Maestro Barenboim announced the formation of the Barenboim-Said Academy in Berlin, Germany. On its opening in 2015, the academy will translate the experience of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra into a permanent, year-round institution for young musicians from the Middle East, building on the legacy of Edward W. Said’s work. As well as receiving music instruction, students will study a core curriculum in arts and humanities. A feature of the academy, to be housed in a building adjacent to the Staatsoper, will be its concert hall designed by the renowned architect Frank Gehry.
About the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra
Founded by Daniel Barenboim and Edward W. Said in 1999, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra brings together musicians from Israel, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt – joined by a number of musicians from Iran, Turkey and Spain – to perform music and promote mutual understanding, non-violence and reconciliation. The orchestra regularly performs in leading international music festivals and concert halls and has given historically unprecedented performances in Ramallah, in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, and most recently at Castel Gandolfo at the invitation of Pope Benedict XVI. Since Edward W. Said’s untimely death in 2003, his widow, Mariam C. Said, has taken on an active role in the projects of the Barenboim-Said Foundation as vice-president of its US branch in New York. Originally created at the invitation of the Kunstfest Weimar and now based in Seville, Spain, the orchestra derives its name from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s collection of poems titled West-Eastern Divan, a central work in the evolution of the concept of world culture. An Emmy Award-winning documentary, Knowledge Is the Beginning, was made about the orchestra in 2006. (A clip is available here). Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has hailed the orchestra as “a source of inspiration and a model for the Middle East and the rest of the world,” and current Secretary General Ban Ki-moon named Barenboim a UN Messenger of Peace for his work with the Divan.
Daniel Barenboim & West-Eastern Divan Orchestra: “Beethoven For All” US tour:
Jan 23
Providence, RI
Brown University, 8:30 PM
Palestine, a play by Najla Said
http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Humanities_Center/events/calendar.html
Jan 24
Providence, RI
Brown University, 6:00 PM
“Dissonance and Harmony: A Conversation”
http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Humanities_Center/events/calendar.html
Jan 25
Providence, RI
Brown University (Granoff Center for the Creative Arts), 5:30 PM
“Dissonance and Harmony: The Arab-Israeli Conflict Through Music and Academic Discourse”
http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Humanities_Center/events/calendar.html
Jan 26
Providence, RI
Veterans Memorial Auditorium, 8 PM
Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 3
http://www.vmari.com/category/events/
Jan 27
Boston, MA
Symphony Hall, 3 PM
Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 3
http://www.celebrityseries.org/CS_performers_2012_2013/westeasterndivan.htm
Jan 27
New York, NY
Symphony Space, 5:30 PM
Film screening: Knowledge Is the Beginning
http://symphonyspace.org/event/7809-knowledge-is-the-beginning
Jan 28
Providence, RI
Veterans Memorial Auditorium, 8 PM
Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 1, 5, & 8
http://www.vmari.com/category/events/
Jan 29
New York, NY
(Le) Poisson Rouge, 8 PM
http://www.lepoissonrouge.com/lpr_events/npr-and-le-poisson-rouge-present-west-eastern-divan-orchestra-jan-29th-2013
Jan 30
New York, NY
Carnegie Hall, 8 PM
Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 1, 5, & 8
http://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2013/1/30/0800/PM/West-Eastern-Divan-Orchestra/
Jan 31
New York, NY
Carnegie Hall, 8 PM
Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 3
http://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2013/1/31/0800/PM/West-Eastern-Divan-Orchestra/
Feb 1
New York, NY
Miller Theatre, Columbia University, 7 PM
Remembering Edward W. Said: A Conversation and Performance
http://www.millertheatre.com/Events/EventDetails.aspx?nid=1576
Feb 2
New York, NY
Carnegie Hall, 8 PM
Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 6 & 7
http://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2013/2/2/0800/PM/West-Eastern-Divan-Orchestra/
Feb 3
New York, NY
Carnegie Hall, 2 PM
Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 9
with Diana Damrau, soprano; Kate Lindsey, mezzo-soprano; Piotr Beczala, tenor; René Pape, bass; Westminster Symphonic Choir / Joe Miller
http://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2013/2/3/0200/PM/West-Eastern-Divan-Orchestra/
www.danielbarenboim.com
www.west-eastern-divan.org
www.facebook.com/danielbarenboim
www.twitter.com/DBarenboim
www.beethoven-for-all.com