Memorial concert for Edward Said is Oct. 12 in Mandel

The late Edward Said

Daniel Barenboim, Chicago Symphony Orchestra Music Director, will lead a special memorial concert at 11 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 12, to celebrate the life and work of noted scholar Edward Said.

Musicians from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and past participants of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra Workshop will join Barenboim for this tribute in the University’s Mandel Hall, 1131 E. 57th St.

Sunday’s memorial concert will feature chamber music performances by Michael Barenboim, violin; Li-Kuo Chang, viola; Stephen Balderston, cello; Robert Kassinger, bass; Mohammed Saleh, oboe; Adolph (Bud) Herseth, trumpet; Elena Bashkirova, piano; and Barenboim, piano—all musicians who have been involved in the West-Eastern Divan Workshop program as either students or faculty members. The concert will include works by Schubert, Schumann and Haydn.

Said, a noted literary critic, scholar and advocate for Palestinian independence, died Thursday, Sept. 25. He was 67.

A close friend of Barenboim, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and a number of Chicago faculty members, Said was an avid music lover and frequent audience member at CSO concerts in Chicago and abroad.

Barenboim and Said collaborated on several projects, including the CSO’s East West Festival in 1995, and the Orchestra’s production of Beethoven’s opera Fidelio during the 1997-1998 Symphony Center season. The two men also co-founded the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra Workshop in 1999. This annual workshop brings together young Israeli and Arab musicians for three weeks of cultural dialogue and music-making each summer.

In 2002, Pantheon Books published Parallels and Paradoxes: Explorations in Music and Society, a book consisting of conversations between Barenboim and Said.

Tickets are not required for this free concert, and seating is on a first come, first served basis. For more information, call PhoneCharge at (312) 294-3000.