Birnbaum

Daniel Barenboim holds citizenship in Argentina, Israel, Spain and Palestine.

Daniel Barenboim started piano lessons at the age of five with his mother, continuing to study with his father Enrique, who remained his only teacher.
In August, 1950, when he was only seven years old, he gave his first formal concert in Buenos Aires.

In the summer of 1954, Daniel Barenboim's parents brought him to Salzburg to take part in Igor Markevitch's conducting classes.
He also met and played for Wilhelm Furtwängler, who has remained a central musical influence and ideal for Barenboim.
Furtwängler called Daniel Barenboim a "phenomenon", and invited him to perform the Beethoven First Piano Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic.
Enrique Barenboim told Furtwängler that it was too soon after the Holocaust for a Jewish child to perform in Berlin.

In 2001, Daniel Barenboim sparked a controversy in Israel by conducting the music of Wagner in concert, which had not been done in Israel since 1938, and was informally taboo.

Since 1992, Daniel Barenboim has been music director of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden (Berlin State Opera) and the Berlin Staatskapelle.

On May 15, 2006, Daniel Barenboim was named principal guest conductor of the La Scala opera house, in Milan.

In the early 1980s, Daniel Barenboim began a relationship with Elena Bashkirova, with whom he had two sons: David Arthur, a manager-writer for the German hip-hop band Level 8, born 1983 in Paris
Michael Barenboim, a violinist, born 1985 in Paris