Itzhak Perlman
Itzhak Perlman
Itzhak Perlmanis an Israeli-American violinist, conductor, and pedagogue. Over the course of his career, Perlman has performed worldwide, and throughout the United States, in venues that have included a State Dinner at the White House honoring Queen Elizabeth II, and a Presidential Inauguration, and he has conducted the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and the Westchester Philharmonic. In 2015, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom...
NationalityIsraeli
ProfessionViolinist
Date of Birth31 August 1945
CityTel Aviv, Israel
CountryIsrael
I'm just a one-instrument player. I have been known to play a blender, but I basically play - just play the violin.
Child prodigy is a curse because you've got all those terrible possibilities.
When you play a concerto with a small orchestra, you don't feel it is as important as Carnegie Hall. You try to work out all the little problems. Once that's all done, trust comes in.
The Violin of my dreams. If you wanna play a pianissimo that is almost inaudible and yet it carries through a hall that seats 3,000 people, there's your Strad.
Perhaps our task in this shaky, fast-changing, bewildering world in which we live is to make music, at first with all that we have, and then, when that is no longer possible, to make music with what we have left.
Another thing that I don't like to do is show too much how it goes. I do it once in a blue moon. Sometimes there are lessons when I don't pick up a violin at all.
Competition can be the most nerve-racking experience. Some people just thrive on it.
I am playing the violin, that's all I know, nothing else, no education, no nothing. You just practice every day.
There is nothing like a fine Italian sound.
I couldn't only do one thing--I don't want the personal hell of oneness.
One of the great challenges is to know when things are not right.
The thing is that what you try to do when you play is you try to play not below a certain level. In other words, it can be a special day where it would be phenomenal, but if it's not below a certain level, that's the goal. You know, that's what you want to do. That's why you practice and so on.
If you play something well, I don't care what it is. I mean, I don't play an electric [violin] - I tried. It's actually interesting.
..I heard Ori Kam and was deeply impressed with his achievements as a violist. His technical and interpretive skills are truly unique. I see a great future for him.