The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, which brings together an equal number of young musicians from Israel and the Arab nations as well as members from Spain, Turkey and Iran, was founded in 1999 by Daniel Barenboim and the Palestinian literary scholar Edward Said. Their guiding principle was a vision of cultures coexisting peacefully – their motto is »Equal in Music«. The programmes are prepared in intensive workshops and then presented on international concert tours. The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra has performed in venues such as the Berliner Philharmonie and the Musikverein in Vienna, as well as the Teatro alla Scala in Milan and the Salle Pleyel in Paris, New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, but also in Rabat, Ramallah, Qatar and Abu Dhabi. They regularly appear at the BBC Proms in London, the Waldbühne in Berlin and the Salzburg Festival. The work of the orchestra is documented in numerous CD and DVD recordings as well as in Paul Smaczny’s film »Knowledge is the Beginning«. In 2016 the orchestra was designated as a United Nations Global Advocate for Cultural Understanding. The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra is associated with the Barenboim-Said Akademie, a state-accredited conservatory for music and the humanities.