The United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and the United Nations Department of Global Communications (UNDGC) introduced to the UN community the West-Eastern Divan Ensemble on February 23, 2023. 

In an event, entitled “Equal in Music,” the West-Eastern Divan Ensemble led by Michael Barenboim, performed Felix Mendelssohn’s String Octet in E-flat major, Opus 20 at UN Headquarters, and took part in a public discussion about the project. 

Michael Barenboim said “we have musicians that come from countries that are in conflict with each other in one way or another. And we show that by cooperating in a project such as this one, which is, you know, performing a string orchestra in this case, it's possible to bring together these people from conflicting States so that they're able to work together to, to and to this goal.”

Barenboim added, “I think that's showing an alternative model and alternative way of thinking for the Middle East region. Which is not based on arms, bombs, war, blood and conflict, but based on understanding and on dialog and on listening to the other. That's very important. When you play music, you play, but you also have to listen to the others.”

Mariam C. Said, Vice President of the Barenboim-Said Foundation USA, also attended the event. She is the wife of the Palestinian author-scholar Edward Said.

She said, “The message I think that it sends to the world is that by living, by getting an education, by having a career, by having something in common with the people who are in the same field as you are, you are bound to overcome many, many hurdles. And the humanism is behind this idea of being open, being ready to listen to the others, to have various ideas.”

The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra was designated by SG Ban Ki-moon in 2016 as a United Nations Global Advocate for Cultural Understanding.