Daniel Barenboim wins esteemed music prize

Acclaimed conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim has won a prestigious award known in some circles as the "Nobel Prize for music."

Barenboim was named Thursday the 2006 winner of the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize, awarded annually to "a composer, performer or musicologist who has made an outstanding contribution to international music life."

In its citation, the prize jury called Barenboim "a universal musician" and praised his "exceptional interpretations" of the classical-romantic repertoire as well as his advocacy of more contemporary music.

The prize, worth 150,000 euros (about $211,000), will be presented in Vienna on May 12. The ceremony will include a tribute to Barenboim by French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez.

Barenboim has said he plans to pour two-thirds of the prize money into the renovation of Berlin's famed Staatsoper building and the remaining third into a new foundation he is creating.

Born in Buenos Aires to parents of Jewish Russian descent, Barenboim began his musical career early. He was a child pianist, giving his first official concert at the age of seven and making his first gramophone recording by the age of 12. In his 20s, he moved into the world of conducting.

The Grammy-winning Barenboim's credits include serving as conductor and pianist with the English Chamber Orchestra, music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and general music director of the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, which in 2000 also named him chief conductor for life.

In the early 1990s, Barenboim formed a lifelong friendship with Palestinian activist, writer and scholar Edward Said. The two men created a joint foundation aimed at promoting music and co-operation between young musicians from Israel and from Arab countries.

They first staged their West-Eastern Divan music workshop in 1999 and, despite Said's death in September 2003, the workshop and its subsequent youth orchestra have continued to meet and perform annually.