Conductor Daniel Barenboim announces he has Parkinson’s disease
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Daniel Barenboim has been a titan of classical music for almost seven decades.
PHOTO: AFP
Alex Marshall
BERLIN – Daniel Barenboim, the eminent conductor and pianist who stepped back from engagements in recent years citing health concerns, said on Feb 6 that he has Parkinson’s disease.
Announcing the diagnosis in a short statement, the 82-year-old said he still planned to fulfil as many of his professional commitments as possible, including concerts with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, an ensemble he founded in 1999 to bring Israeli and Arab musicians together.
“If I am unable to perform, it is because my health does not allow me to,” he said, adding that he was adjusting to “navigating this new reality” and that his focus is on receiving the best available care.
Three years ago, Barenboim announced that he was suffering from a “serious neurological condition” that was affecting his work. In January 2023, he resigned as general music director of the Berlin State Opera because of poor health.
A spokesperson for the Daniel Barenboim Foundation said he was unavailable for an interview.
His next scheduled performance is in August as part of a West-Eastern Divan Orchestra summer tour, the spokesperson said, adding that Barenboim was continuing to teach at the Barenboim-Said Academy, a music school he established in Berlin that brings together students from across the Middle East.
Born to Jewish parents in Argentina, Barenboim has been a titan of classical music for almost seven decades, first as a piano prodigy and later as a conductor and music director.
He took over the leadership of the Berlin State Opera in 1992 and transformed it into one of the world’s leading houses. He also held music director positions at the Orchestre de Paris, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Teatro alla Scala in Milan.
Since the 1980s, Barenboim has also been an outspoken political figure as much as a revered musical one – a rarity for a conductor.
In 1989, just days after the Berlin Wall fell, Barenboim led the Berlin Philharmonic in a concert for East Germans. A decade later, along with Palestinian scholar-writer Edward Said, he founded the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in the belief that music could lead Israelis and Arabs to mutual understanding.
In his statement on Feb 6, Barenboim said he considered the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra his “most important responsibility”. “It is essential for me to ensure the orchestra’s long-term stability and development,” he said. NYTIMES
