Michael Barenboim

Violin

Born in Paris in 1985, Michael Barenboim began playing the violin at age 7 in Berlin, where his teachers were Abraham Jaffe and Axel Wilczok. In 2000 he joined the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, and since 2003 has been its concertmaster. He served as assistant concertmaster in the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, under Claudio Abbado. He is a frequent substitute in the Vienna Philharmonic and Berlin Philharmonic orchestras. As a chamber musician he has performed at festivals including Salzburg, Rheingau, Jerusalem and the Bonn Beethoven Fest with musicians such as Guy Braunstein, Frans Helmerson, Daniel Barenboim, Karl-Heinz Steffens, and Nikolaj Znaider. He is founder and first violin of the Erlenbusch String Quartet, which appears frequently in Germany and Israel. As a soloist he has given concerts in Europe and the US, and has performed the complete Bach solo sonatas and partitas in Europe and the Middle East, most recently in Bologna, in 2009.