Daniel Barenboim Will Be Honored With a Charity Gala Concert in May

Hommage Daniel Barenboim comes to Salzburg in May. The charity gala concert is set for Saturday 29 May 2023.

As an exceptional musician, both as pianist and conductor and initiator of cultural projects, Daniel Barenboim has been enriching the music world for an incredible seven decades. Not only a renowned musician of global stature, he is one of those artists who is actively engaged in peace-making, challenging the limits of political thinking. In 1999 he founded the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra with the aim of uniting young Israeli and Arab instrumentalists in musical dialogue with one another.

Barenboim has never lost sight of the need to promote young artists, working with Cecilia Bartoli, for example, in the legendary Salzburg production of Don Giovanni in 1994, or conducting young pianist Lang Lang's debuts in New York and London in 2001, and continuing his musical partnership with both artists ever since. Rolando Villazón and Sonya Yoncheva are among his regular artistic partners, and he paid tribute to his friend Plácido Domingo at the latter's 50th stage anniversary in Berlin. Barenboim has enjoyed a deep friendship with Zubin Mehta since his Salzburg Festival debut in 1965, while his music-making with Martha Argerich goes right back to his childhood in Buenos Aires, giving their later performances together a particular intimacy. Daniel Barenboim's 80th birthday offers the opportunity for his companions of many years to come together for a gala performance in honour of the maestro.