The Sound of Utopia: From the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra to the Barenboim-Said Academy

by Daniel Barenboim (Editor), Michael Naumann (Editor)

Daniel Barenboim and the literary theorist Edward W. Said founded the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in Weimar in 1999. In this extraordinary ensemble, young musicians from Israel and the Arab World make music together on a world-class-level. The Orchestra's humanistic spirit is passed on to young scholarship students from the Middle East. The Akademie's mission is to help its students become "thinking musicians." An integral part of the Akademie is the Pierre Boulez Saal, designed by American star architect Frank Ghery. This unusual, elliptical concert hall offers a top-notch program which allows a broader public to share in Daniel Barenboim's ideal of education through music. Its modular space meets the highest artistic demands while offering the greatest possible degree of flexibility. In its first year alone, it attracted over 85 000 visitors to 150 concerts. This book uses pictures, short texts, and quotations of musicians to describe how the sound of utopia, which Daniel Barenboim and Edward E. Said heard from afar, has been realized in their joint projects. It is based on an exhibition of the same name on display in the foyer of the Barenboim-Said Akademie and describes the development of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra from its beginnings at Kunstfest Weimar to the projects launched by the Daniel Barenboim Foundation in the Middle East right up to the founding of the Barenboim-Said Akademie and the Pierre Boulez Saal.

224 pages, Paperback

Published September 12, 2018

About the author

Argentine-Israeli pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim performed widely with Jacqueline du Pré, his wife and the cellist.

He previously served as music director of the symphony orchestra of Chicago and the Orchestre de Paris. He served as general music director of la Scala in Milan, the state opera of Berlin, and the Staatskapelle. People also know work of Barenboim with the Seville-based west–eastern Divan orchestra of young Arab musicians, and he a resolutely criticizes the occupation of Palestinian territories.

Barenboim received many awards and prizes, including an honorary knight commander of the order of the British Empire, Légion d'honneur of France as a commander and grand officier, the German Großes Bundesverdienstkreuz and Willy Brandt award, and, together with the Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said, prince of Asturias concord award of Spain. He won seven Grammy awards for his work and discography. Barenboim, a polyglot, fluent in Spanish, Hebrew, English, French, Italian, and German.