Daniel Barenboim Conducts The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra At Carnegie Hall 11/8

By: Oct. 15, 2018
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Daniel Barenboim Conducts The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra At Carnegie Hall 11/8 On Thursday, November 8 at 8:00 p.m. Music Director Daniel Barenboim leads the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra-the lauded ensemble of young musicians from Israel, Palestine, and other Arab countries that Mr. Barenboim co-founded in 1999 with his late friend, the Palestinian literary scholar Edward W. Said-in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage. The evening's program will feature Richard Strauss's Don Quixote-with violist Miriam Manasherov and cellist Kian Soltani stepping forward from the orchestra as soloists-as well as Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5. This performance-Carnegie Hall's Annual Isaac Stern Memorial Concert-will be broadcast live on WQXR 105.9 FM.

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 German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's collection of poems entitled West-Eastern Divan, which they considered to be a central work for 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. The Divan made its New York debut at Carnegie Hall in 2006 and returned with Maestro Barenboim in 2013 for a complete Beethoven symphony cycle. This 2018 concert is part of a US tour with additional performances in Chicago, Washington DC, Berkeley, and Los Angeles.

The November 8 performance will be heard by listeners around the world, as part of the eighth annual Carnegie Hall Live broadcast and digital series with a live radio broadcast on WQXR 105.9 FM in New York and online at wqxr.org and carnegiehall.org/wqxr. Produced by WQXR and Carnegie Hall and co-hosted by WQXR's Jeff Spurgeon and Clemency Burton-Hill, select Carnegie Hall Live broadcasts featured throughout the season include special digital access to the broadcast team from backstage and in the control room, connecting national and international fans to the music and to each other.

About the Artists
Born in Israel in 1981, violist Miriam Manasherov took her first violin lessons with Luba Shochat at the age of eight. After graduating from the Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts, she joined the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) as part of the Excellent Musicians Unit, where she played in a quartet that later formed the basis of the Rosso Quartet. In the same year, she began her viola training with Yuri Gandelsman at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music in Tel Aviv. In 2003, she transferred to the Musikhochschule Lübeck where she studied with Barbara Westphal. Ms. Manasherov has performed as a principal violist in the Orchestral Academy of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and at the Verbier Festival Orchestra. In 1999, Daniel Barenboim engaged her in the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. She is additionally a freelance player with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and has played in the Konzerthaus Orchestra in Berlin, the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, and the WDR Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Manasherov is the winner of the chamber music competition at The Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. She received scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and the DAAD in Germany. After almost a decade in Germany, she now lives in Israel.

Cellist Kian Soltani made his international musical breakthrough at the age of 19 with acclaimed debuts in the Vienna Musikverein and at the Hohenems Schubertiade. He attracted further worldwide attention in 2013 as winner of the International Paulo Cello Competition in Helsinki. He holds the post of principal cellist in the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, and, in summer 2015, joined Daniel Barenboim as one of the soloists in Beethoven's Triple Concerto, performing the work during the Divan's Waldbühnenkonzert in Berlin, at the Salzburg and Lucerne festivals, the BBC Proms in London, and at Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.

Mr. Soltani was born in 1992 in Bregenz, Austria to a family of Persian musicians. He began playing cello at age four and was only 12 when he joined Ivan Monighetti's class at the Basel Music Academy. He was chosen as an Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation scholarship holder in 2014, and completed his studies as a member of the Young Soloist Program at Germany's Kronberg Academy. He received additional musical training at the International Music Academy in Liechtenstein. Kian Soltani plays on a 1680 cello, by the brothers Grancino, on generous loan from the Merito String Instruments Trust.

Daniel Barenboim was born in 1942 in Buenos Aires, where he gave his first public concert at the age of seven. In 1952, he moved to Israel with his parents. His international debut as a pianist came at age 10 with concerts in Salzburg, Vienna, and Rome. Since then, he has regularly toured Europe, the United States, South America, Australia, and the Far East. He made his conducting debut in 1967 with London's Philharmonia Orchestra and served as principal conductor of the Orchestre de Paris (1975-1989) as well as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (1991-2006) and the Teatro alla Scala in Milan (2011-2014). Since 1992, he has been general music director of Berlin's Staatsoper Unter den Linden. In 2000, the Staatskapelle Berlin appointed him chief conductor for life. He recently founded a trio with violinist Michael Barenboim and cellist Kian Soltani, which first performed together in the summer of 2016 at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.

In 1999, Maestro Barenboim and Palestinian literary scholar Edward Said established the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, which brings together young musicians from Israel, Palestine, and other Arab and North-African countries and tours internationally every summer. The work of the orchestra led to the founding in 2015 of the Barenboim-Said Akademie, which since fall 2016 has been offering a four-year bachelor program in music and the humanities for students primarily from the Middle East. The academy is located in the former set storage building of the Staatsoper and also houses the Frank Gehry-designed Pierre Boulez Saal.

Daniel Barenboim is the recipient of numerous awards honoring his peace efforts and has published a number of books.

The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra has been a significant presence in the international music world for almost 20 years. In 1999, Daniel Barenboim and the late Palestinian literary scholar Edward Said created a workshop for young musicians from Israel, Palestine and several Arab countries to promote coexistence and intercultural dialogue. They named the orchestra after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's collection of poems entitled "West-Eastern Divan," a central work for the development of the concept of world culture.

The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra's first sessions took place in Weimar and Chicago. An equal number of Israeli and Arab musicians including musicians from Turkey and Iran form the base of the orchestra, together with a group of Spanish members. They meet each summer for a workshop, where rehearsals are complemented by lectures and discussions and followed by an international concert tour.

The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra has proved time and again that music can break down barriers previously considered insurmountable. The only political aspect that prevails in the work of the Divan is the conviction that there is no military solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, and that the destinies of Israelis and Palestinians are inextricably linked. Through its work and existence, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra demonstrates that bridges can be built to encourage people to listen to the narrative of the other. While music alone cannot resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict, it grants the individual the right and obligation to express him/herself fully while listening to his/her neighbor. Based on this notion of equality, co-operation and justice for all, the orchestra represents an alternative model to the current situation in the Middle East.

The orchestra's repertoire extends beyond symphonic works to opera and chamber music performances. Concert highlights have included performances at the most prestigious venues in Europe, Asia and the Americas. While the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra has become a regular guest at the main international music festivals in Europe, one of its goals is to perform in the home countries of its members. Concerts in Rabat, Doha, Abu Dhabi and the emblematic concert in Ramallah in 2005 have been steps towards fulfilling this aspiration. The orchestra has also performed at the United Nations: in December 2006 in honor of Secretary General Kofi Annan at the General Assembly in New York and in October 2015 for the first time at the UN headquarters in Geneva. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon named Daniel Barenboim UN Messenger of Peace in September 2007 and designated the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra as a United Nations Global Advocate for Cultural Understanding in February 2016. The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra has released a number of highly acclaimed CDs/DVDs.

The most recent addition to Barenboim-Said projects is the Barenboim-Said Akademie, Berlin. Edward Said and Daniel Barenboim consider music to be an integral part of society. Daniel Barenboim has written and lectured widely on the subject of "Education Through Music" rather than mere music education (cf. his 2006 Norton Lectures at Harvard University, expanded into the book Everything is Connected, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2008). Since 2015, talented young musicians from the Middle East also study at the Barenboim-Said Akademie in Berlin. In the fall of 2016, this university for Music and the Humanities housed in the renovated former stage depot of the State Opera started enrolling up to 90 students in a four-year bachelor program. Also housed in the same building as the Akademie is the Frank Gehry-designed Pierre Boulez Saal that enriches Berlin's musical life, started in March 2017.

Program Information
Thursday, November 8, 2018 at 8:00 p.m.
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
WEST-EASTERN DIVAN ORCHESTRA
Daniel Barenboim, Music Director and Conductor
Miriam Manasherov, Viola
Kian Soltani, Cello

THE ANNUAL Isaac Stern MEMORIAL CONCERT

Richard Strauss Don Quixote, Op. 35
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 5 in E Minor, Op. 64

The Trustees of Carnegie Hall gratefully acknowledge the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Richard A. Debs in support of the 2018-2019 season.

Public support for Carnegie Hall Live on WQXR is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Bank of America is the Proud Season Sponsor of Carnegie Hall.
Ticket Information
Tickets, priced at $45-$125 are available at the Carnegie Hall Box Office, 154 West 57th Street, or can be charged to major credit cards by calling CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800 or by visiting the Carnegie Hall website, carnegiehall.org.

For Carnegie Hall Corporation presentations taking place in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage, a limited number of seats, priced at $10, will be available day-of-concert beginning at 11:00 a.m. Monday through Saturday and 12:00 noon on Sunday until one hour before the performance or until supply lasts. The exceptions are Carnegie Hall Family Concerts and gala events. These $10 tickets are available to the general public on a first-come, first-served basis at the Carnegie Hall Box Office only. There is a two-ticket limit per customer.

In addition, for all Carnegie Hall presentations in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage a limited number of partial view (seats with obstructed or limited sight lines or restricted leg room) will be sold for 50% of the full price. For more information on this and other discount ticket programs, including those for students, Notables members, and Bank of America customers, visit carnegiehall.org/discounts. Artists, programs, and prices are subject to change.



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