Daniel Barenboim is one of the central contemporary artistic personalities. As a pianist and conductor, he has been active in the metropolises of Europe and around the world for decades, and as an orchestra founder and initiator of well-regarded projects, he has significantly enriched international music life.

Daniel Barenboim was born in Buenos Aires in 1942. He received piano lessons from his mother, later from his father and gave his first public concert at the age of seven in Buenos Aires. In 1952 he moved to Israel with his parents which after he took part in Igor Markevitch's conducting classes in Salzburg. In the summer of 1954 he met Wilhelm Furtwängler and played for him. Furtwängler then wrote: "Eleven-year-old Daniel Barenboim is a phenomenon." Until 1956, he then studied harmony and composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris.

At the age of ten, Daniel Barenboim made his solo debut as a pianist in Vienna. Numerous recordings attest to Daniel Barenboim's high artistic standing as a pianist and conductor. From 1954 he appeared with solo recordings, u. a. with Beethoven's piano sonatas. In the 1960s he recorded the Beethoven, Brahms and Mozart piano concertos.

Since his conducting debut in London in 1967 with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Daniel Barenboim has been in demand with the world's leading orchestras, including the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic, with whom he has worked for decades. Between 1975 and 1989 he was chief conductor of the Orchester de Paris. During this time he often performed contemporary works.

From 1991 to June 2006, Daniel Barenboim was chief conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In 2006 the orchestra's musicians chose him as honorary conductor for life which is quite an achievement.