Go to page content

Award Winner  2025

Peace Award Winner  2025

Daniel
Barenboim

The Pahl Peace Prize 2025 honours Daniel Barenboim not only for his outstanding musical achievements, but above all for his courageous and visionary commitment to dialogue and understanding. Daniel Barenboim is a role model, an ambassador of hope, and an inspiring example of how music and humanity are inseparably connected.

The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra may not change the world, but it is a step forward. Edward Said and I see our project as an ongoing dialogue, in which the universal, metaphysical language of music is linked to the continuous conversation we engage in with young people – and that young people have among themselves.

Daniel Barenboim

Biographie
Daniel Barenboim

Born in Buenos Aires in 1942, Daniel Barenboim gave his first public concert at the age of seven. In 1952, he moved to Israel with his parents. Shortly thereafter, he took part in conducting courses with Igor Markevitch in Salzburg and later studied harmony and composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris until 1956. Following his solo debut as a pianist in Vienna and Rome at the age of ten, he gave successive performances in Paris, London, and New York. Since then, he has regularly toured Europe, the USA, South America, Asia, and Australia. As an accompanist, he has worked with the most important singers of our time, particularly with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.

Since his conducting debut in 1967 with the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, Daniel Barenboim has performed with all of the world’s leading orchestras. From 1975 to 1989, he was the principal conductor of the Orchestre de Paris. From 1991 to 2006, he served as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which named him honorary conductor after his tenure ended. Between 2007 and 2014, he held leading positions at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, serving as its music director starting in 2011. He made his opera conducting debut at the Edinburgh Festival in 1973. In 1981, he appeared for the first time at the Bayreuth Festival, where he worked every summer for nearly two decades. From 1992 to January 2023, he served as General Music Director of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden; in 2000, the Staatskapelle Berlin elected him Chief Conductor for Life.

In 1999, Daniel Barenboim, together with Palestinian literary scholar Edward W. Said, founded the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, which brings together young musicians from Israel, Palestine, and other countries in the Middle East and North Africa. The orchestra, which goes on an international concert tour every summer, aims to foster dialogue between the diverse cultures of the Middle East through the shared experience of making music. This project led to the creation of the Barenboim-Said Academy in Berlin, which opened in 2015 and has offered a four-year bachelor’s program in music and humanities—primarily for students from Middle Eastern countries—since autumn 2016. A master’s program was added in early 2024. The academy is located in the former magazine building of the Staatsoper and also houses the Pierre Boulez Saal. The Boulez Ensemble, founded by Daniel Barenboim, has found its artistic home there.

Daniel Barenboim has been awarded the Grand Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, is a Knight Commander of the British Empire, a Commandeur de la Légion d’Honneur, and a UN Messenger of Peace. The University of Oxford awarded him an honorary doctorate. His published works include his autobiography Music – My Life (1992, reissued 2002), Parallels and Paradoxes (with Edward W. Said, 2004), Sound is Life: The Power of Music (2008), Dialogues on Music and Theater: Tristan and Isolde (with Patrice Chéreau, 2008), and Music is Everything and Everything is Music: Memories and Insights (2014).

Quelle: SRF Kultur Sternstunden

The award recognizes not only his exceptional musical achievements but above all his courageous and visionary commitment to dialogue and understanding. Daniel Barenboim is a role model, an ambassador of hope, and an inspiring example that music and humanity are inextricably linked.

Presentation of the Pahl Peace Prize 2025 to Daniel Barenboim

Awarding of the Pahl Peace Prize 2025 to Daniel Barenboim
On Wednesday, June 11, 2025, the Pahl Peace Prize 2025 was awarded to Maestro Daniel Barenboim in a festive ceremony at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin. With this award, the Pahl Peace Prize Foundation honors personalities who have made an outstanding contribution to peace, dialogue and humanity.

Picture: Daniel Barenboim with representatives of the Pahl Peace Prize Foundation and members of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra


Students from the Barenboim-Said Akademie provided the musical backdrop to the event.

Copyright Fotos: Peter Adamik