Daniel Oren

Daniel Oren was born in 1955 in Tel Aviv

Daniel Oren was born on 25 May 1955, originally named Daniel Siksik. His father Sam was born in Jaffa as Ismail Siksik, to a Muslim father and a Jewish mother. His mother, Rivka Grandstein, came from a Hasidic family and was a psychologist who studied at the Sorbonne.

As a young man he studied piano, cello, voice, harmony and counterpoint. In 1968 Leonard Bernstein chose him as the boy soloist in his Chichester Psalms. He later finished his studies in Germany, focusing on orchestral conducting.

His international career began in 1975, when he won first prize in the first Herbert von Karajan Conducting Competition. He made his United States debut in Spoleto and his Arena di Verona debut in 1984 with Tosca. In December 1994 he led the opening of the New Israeli Opera with Nabucco.

He has conducted at Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera, the Paris Opera and other houses. Since 2007 he has been artistic director of the Teatro Verdi in Salerno. He was music director of the Israeli Opera from 2014 to 2017, and in 2018 he debuted at La Scala with Aida.