Special concert

‘Playing with Friends’ is a group of musicians who, as young talents, were given the opportunity to join the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, founded in Weimar in 1999 by Edward Said and Daniel Barenboim. They come from Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Israel and Germany. Just six weeks after the West-Eastern Divan was founded, the group gathered here came together from the ranks of the orchestra to make music in a changing chamber music ensemble under the name ‘Playing with Friends’.

The young musicians of that time have since become mature and professional orchestral musicians and soloists. They have made way for the next generation in the Divan Orchestra. Today, they enrich many renowned orchestras in the European cultural scene with their voices. Most of them have permanent engagements in Berlin, Basel, Düsseldorf, Vienna, Tel Aviv, Cairo and Doha.

The musicians of ‘Playing with Friends’ embody the spirit of their role models and teachers, Edward Said and Daniel Barenboim, namely that it is the task of a musician to express his or her soul with the help of an instrument and thus reach out to neighbours.