CONTACT: Wendy Leopold at (847) 491-4890 or at w-leopold@northwestern.edu

February 10, 2004

Barenboim Talks About Literary Critic Edward Said

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim will discuss the life and work of the late Palestinian literary critic and intellectual Edward Said in a presentation at 5:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 15, at Northwestern University. Barenboim, music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Said co-authored “Parallels and Paradoxes: Explorations in Music and Society.”

Titled “Remembering Edward Said,” Barenboim’s presentation about the late Columbia University professor is free and open to the public. It will take place in Lutkin Hall, 700 University Place, on Northwestern’s Evanston campus. A brief performance by Barenboim in memory of Said will end the presentation.

A chance meeting in London between Israeli Barenboim and the Palestinian Said resulted in an enduring friendship. Barenboim, son of a Russian Jew who moved to Buenos Aires and later to Israel, found he had much in common with Said, who grew up in Cairo as a young child, was educated in the U.S., and spent much of his adult life in various locations around the world.

“Parallels and Paradoxes” grew out of the acclaimed Carnegie Hall Talks, in which Barenboim and Said discussed musical and cultural topics. These included the nature of performance, the differences between music and literature and the works of Wagner. (Barenboim conducted the first-ever Israeli performance of the music of Wagner, which was long associated with anti-Semitism.)

Barenboim’s presentation is co-sponsored by the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, the department of English, and the Alice Berline Kaplan Center for the Humanities. For further information, call (847) 491-7294 or (847) 491-7946.