Trivia

Accepted honorary Palestinian citizenship in 2007. He is the first Israeli to be granted citizenship by the Palestinian Authority.

Conducted the Vienna New Year's Concert in 2009.

Father of David Arthur (b. 1983) and Michael (b. 1985). The family lives in Berlin.

From 1992 until January 2023, Barenboim was the general music director of the Berlin State Opera and "Staatskapellmeister" of its orchestra, the Staatskapelle Berlin.

In 2017, Barenboim unveiled a piano that has straight-strung bass strings, as opposed to the crossed-stringed modern instrument. He was inspired by Liszt's Erard piano, which has straight strings. Barenboim appreciates the clarity of tone and a greater control over the tonal quality (or color) his new instrument gives. This piano was developed with the help of Chris Maene at Maene Piano, who also built it. In 2019, Barenboim used this instrument to perform at Berliner Philhamoniker.

In January 2009, Barenboim cancelled two concerts of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in Qatar and Cairo "due to the escalating violence in Gaza and the resulting concerns for the musicians' safety".

Barenboim served as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris and La Scala in Milan.

Barenboim is known for his work with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, a Seville-based orchestra of young Arab and Israeli musicians, and as a resolute critic of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.

In 2018, Barenboim was the subject of the French animated series Max & Maestro.

Barenboim received 7 Grammy Awards.

In 2020, Barenboim curated the digital festival of new music "Distance / Intimacy" with flautist Emmanuel Pahud in the Pierre Boulez Saal. At their invitation ten contemporary composers, among them Jörg Widmann, Olga Neuwirth and Matthias Pintscher, contributed new works engaging artistically with the COVID-19 pandemic. All participating composers and musicians waived their fees, inviting listeners to financially support arts and culture.

In July 2012, Barenboim and the orchestra played a pivotal role at the BBC Proms, performing a cycle of Beethoven's nine symphonies, with the Ninth timed to coincide with the opening of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

To mark Barenboim's 75th birthday, Deutsche Grammophon released a box set of 39 CDs of his solo recordings,[55] and Sony Classical issued a box set of Barenboim's orchestral recordings on 43 CDs and three DVDs in 2017, Daniel Barenboim - A Retrospective.

He was an Olympic flag carrier at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in 2012.

After being invited for the fourth time to the Doha Festival for Music and Dialogue in Qatar with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in 2012, Barenboim's invitation was cancelled by the authorities because of "sensitivity to the developments in the Arab world". There had been a campaign against him in the Arab media,[99] accusing him of "being a Zionist".

A Knesset committee called for Barenboim to be declared a persona non-grata in Israel until he apologized for conducting Wagner's music. The move was condemned by the musical director of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Zubin Mehta and members of Knesset. Prior to receiving the $100,000 Wolf Prize, awarded annually in Israel, Barenboim said, "If people were really hurt, of course I regret this, because I don't want to harm anyone".

Barenboim is an outspoken critic of Israel's conservative governments and the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. In an interview with the British music critic Norman Lebrecht in 2003, Barenboim accused Israel of behaving in a manner that was "morally abhorrent and strategically wrong" and "putting in danger the very existence of the state of Israel".

During the Gulf War, he and an orchestra performed in Israel in gas masks.

He is an Argentine-born classical pianist and conductor based in Berlin.

In September 2005, presenting the book "Parallels and Paradoxes" written with Edward Said, Barenboim refused to be interviewed by uniformed Israel Defense Forces Radio reporter Dafna Arad, considering the wearing of the uniform insensitive for the occasion. In response, Israeli Education Minister Limor Livnat of the Likud party called him "a real Jew hater" and "a real anti-Semite".