(Credit: © SF/Marco Borrelli)

The Salzburg Festival has announced that during a benefit gala, it raised revenues exceeding 186,000 Euros.

The company noted that the revenue was raised during Daniel Barenboim’s 80^th birthday gala which was presented for the Daniel Barenboim Foundation. The gala was held on May 29, 2023, and featured Cecilia Bartoli, Sonya Yoncheva, Rolando Villazón, Plácido Domingo, Martha Argerich, and Lang Lang. Daniel Barenboim and Zubin Mehta conducted the gala concert, which was performed by the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.

In a statement, Cecilia Bartoli, Artistic Director of the Salzburg Whitsun Festival said, “I am delighted about the considerable amount of funds that were raised at the benefit concert for my friend Daniel Barenboim’s foundation. We organised this concert to celebrate his 80^th birthday, and many of his musical companions accepted my invitation. On this evening, the audience was able to experience what Daniel Barenboim means to us as an artist and as a human being. My thanks go to all the performers, who waived their fees in favour of the Daniel Barenboim Foundation, and also to the audience, who welcomed us with great warmth and enthusiasm. The importance of this initiative – especially the Barenboim-Said Academy and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra – has once again become clear in recent weeks. Daniel Barenboim’s vision was to bring together musicians from Israel and the Palestinian territories, but also from other countries in the Middle East, in the Academy and his orchestra, where they would spend time together and learn to respond to each other, listening to one another and creating a communal voice through differentiated music-making.”

The Daniel Barenboim Foundation is the organization under whose auspices the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and the Barenboim-Said Academy with the Pierre Boulez Saal, opened in 2016. The members of the orchestra are mainly from Israel, Palestine and other Arab countries, such as Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon.