Berlin is home to what is arguably the most influential concert hall of the 20th century, designed by Hans Scharoun for the city’s philharmonic orchestra and inaugurated in 1963. Smaller in scale than that 2,440-seat auditorium, Berlin’s newest music venue, Pierre Boulez Hall (a tribute to the late French composer and conductor) may be nearly as impressive in form and context.

Designed by Frank Gehry, the 683-seat hall is part of the Barenboim-Said Academy (BSA), a new conservatory founded by maestro Daniel Barenboim to foster communication through music. The school, which trains young musicians from the Middle East, North Africa, and around the world, was named for Barenboim and his colleague Edward Said, the late American-Palestinian scholar, with whom he established the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in 1999 to enable young Palestinian and Israeli musicians to play together.