Michael Barenboim is a soloist and chamber musician at violin and viola, an ensemble founder, concertmaster of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and professor at the Barenboim-Said-Akademie. His work’s focus lies on diversity and creativity. He works with orchestras such as the Berliner Philharmoniker, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra London, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and the Orquesta Nacional de España.

Among the highlights of the season 2026/27 will count performances of Schönberg’s violin concerto with Concerto Budapest under András Keller, concerts with the Sichuan Symphony Orchestra under Ni Fang and cooperations with the English Chamber Orchestra, where Barenboim will be both soloist and conductor. Together with the Nasmé Ensemble, he will be a guest at the Kunstfest Corvey and in the Pierre Boulez Saal.

Chamber music has been a big part of Barenboim’s concert work not just since the foundation of his West-Eastern Divan Ensemble at the beginning of 2020. The ensemble, made up of carefully selected members of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, has successfully toured under his management. With the newly founded ensemble of Palestinian musicians called Nasmé, he additionally does his part in advocating for the visibility of Palestinian artists. Barenboim is additionally a part of Make Freedom Ring, a collective of classical musicians which regularly organises benefice concerts for Palestine in several European cities. Furthermore, he is a member of the Association of Palestinian and Jewish Academics and co-curates a lecture series named Kilmé Talks, which gives Palestinian artists and academics a platform.

Barenboim intensively dedicates himself to contemporary music as well: The interpretation of works of the 20th and 21st century plays a large role in his work both as a soloist with an orchestra, as well as in chamber music. He has performed numerous new compositions for the first time, amongst them pieces by Jörg Widmann, Kareem Roustom, Matthias Pintscher and more. His CD recordings prove his urge for constant renewal as well. His recordings for Accentus are dedicated to the works of Bach, Bartók, Paganini and Sciarrino. Additionally, between 2018 and 2020, the piano quartets and trios by Mozart as well as all of Beethoven’s piano trios, together with Kian Soltani and Daniel Barenboim, were released. In 2023, Michael Barenboim published a recording of Elgar’s violin concerto with the Philharmonia London at Linn Records; at the same label, Mendelssohn’s »Lieder ohne Worte« followed.