Prominent and controversial Israeli pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for promoting peace in the Middle East through his music, the AFP reported Thursday. In Argentina, around 2,500 people rallied behind the nomination, among them former Uruguayan president Julio Maria Sanguinetti and writer Juan Jose Sebreli, according to the report. The nomination will be officially announced at the Academia Argentina de Letras language academy in Buenos Aires on Aug. 17. Together with his long-time friend, Palestinian intellectual and literary theorist Edward Said, Barenboim, 67, founded the Spain-based West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in 1999, which brings together young Arab, Israeli and Iranian musicians to perform around the world. "Music cannot solve conflicts, but music has the ability to make people interested and passionate about the same thing," Barenboim was quoted by AFP as saying on Tuesday before a West-Eastern Divan Orchestra performance in South Korea. In May, Barenboim, who also holds Spanish citizenship and a Palestinian passport, traveled to Gaza and conducted an hour-long concert at the Strip's beachfront Al-Madha Center. He led musicians from Berlin, Vienna and Milan in Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" and the Symphony No. 40. Born in Buenos Aires in 1942 to Jewish parents of Russian decent, Barenboim has received seven Grammy Awards for his work, and since 1992 has served as conductor of the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, the German State Opera in Berlin.
