Born in Buenos Aires in 1942, at the age of five he took his first lessons at piano with his mother, then continued his musical studies with his father, who would remain his only piano teacher. At age seven he gave his first public concert. In 1952 he moved with his family to Israel, and at age eleven he attended Igor Markevitch's conducting course in Salzburg. In 1955 and 1956 he studied harmony and composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. At the age of ten he made his debut as a solo pianist in Vienna and Rome; Paris, London and New York followed in 1957; since then he has performed regularly in Europe, the United States, South America, Australia and the Far East.
Since his debut as Conductor in 1967 in London with the Philharmonia Orchestra, he has always been in great demand by major orchestras around the world. From 1975 to 1989 he was Conductor principal of the Orchestre de Paris. He made his operatic debut at the Edinburgh Festival in 1973.
For eighteen years, from 1981 to 1999, he conducted Wagnerian operas at the Bayreuth Festival. From 1991 to 2006 he was Conductor music of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In 1992 he became Generalmusikdirektor of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, a post he held until January 2023. In both opera and symphony, he developed a broad repertoire at the helm of the Staatskapelle Berlin, which appointed him Conductor principal for life. In 1999, together with Palestinian literature professor Edward Saïd, he founded the West-Eastern Divan workshop, inviting young musicians from Israel and Arab countries to perform together. Since then, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra has become an acclaimed ensemble in Europe and around the world, boasting performances at many major musical venues.
Since 2007 he has collaborated regularly with Teatro alla Scala, for which he was Conductor music from 2011 to 2014. In 2015 he founded the Barenboim- Said Akademie in Berlin, a university for music and the humanities that offers a four-year degree program for talented young musicians from the Middle East. The academy is housed in a renovated former Staatsoper stage depot, which is also home to the Pierre Boulez Hall, designed by Frank Gehry and opened in March 2017.
In his long career, he has also received numerous awards and high international honors and published several books.

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