Elena Cheah was principal cellist of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and the Staatskapelle Berlin, before becoming professor of cello at the Academy for Orchestral Studies for the Barenboim-Said Foundation, Seville, Spain. Elena plays in the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and runs workshops for its members. Born in Pittsburgh, Elena currently lives in Berlin.

Daniel Barenboim is one of the most prominent musicians of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, as both pianist and conductor. He has received numerous Grammy awards, and is the author of A Life in Music, Music Quickens Time, and, co-authored with Edward Said, Parallels and Paradoxes. He was a UN Ambassador for Peace and has received many awards including the Goethe Medal, the Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal, the Praemium Imperiale and the Wolf Prize in Arts.