Barenboim-Said Academy
| Type | Public–private |
|---|---|
| Established | 2012 |
| President | Daniel Barenboim |
| Rector | Michael Naumann |
| Dean | Mena Mark Hanna |
| Students | c. 90 |
| Location | Berlin, Germany |
| Website | barenboimsaid |
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The Barenboim–Said Academy (German: Barenboim-Said Akademie, Arabic: أكاديمية بارنبويم-سعيد, Hebrew: אקדמיה בארנבוים-סעיד) is an academy located in Berlin, Germany, offering Bachelor degrees and Artist Diploma certificates in music; it opened on December 8, 2016. Inspired by its eponymous co-founders, the conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim and the literary theorist and intellectual Edward Said, the academy was financed to a capacity of 90 young musicians, with an admissions focus on the Middle East and North Africa, in the spirit of the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra. Through their joint education and music-making, students will be given the cognitive competence and critical understanding to become exemplary artists and contribute to the future of civil societies in their countries of origin.
After a chance meeting between Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said in a London hotel lobby in 1992, an intellectual exchange about music, literature, society and the Middle Eastern conflict as well as a deep personal friendship ensued until Edward Said's untimely death in 2003. The spirit of this extraordinary relationship was captured in their joint publication Parallels and Paradoxes. This exchange gave rise to the idea of creating an orchestra in which musicians from Israel, Palestine, the Middle East and North Africa would play music together – harmonize in music – and thus create a foundation for discussion with the possibility of mutual understanding. Barenboim has spoken of the ensemble as follows:
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