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
That's the goal, to survive your gift.
Sometimes you get from the mouth of kids wonderful things.
I'm now doing three things: concerts, conducting, and teaching, and they each support each other. I learn to see things from different perspectives and listen with different ears. The most important thing that you need to do is really listen.
I look at raising funds for The Perlman Music Program as a challenge and as a way to provide opportunities for people who care about the future of classical music.
Any gifted child can potentially get in real trouble because of the way they are handled.
A sponge has that much absorbent capability and after a while you can pour water over it and nothing stays.
I feel that you always pay when you are a child.
Same thing with harmonies. If you hear something that harmonically is interesting, express it. So that's what I'm saying about talking the music rather than just playing through.
Another thing that you really do when you play, that you're supposed to do, is colors. You know, you cannot play with one color. If you play with one color, again, it's like watching a beautiful painting, a drawing, but it's all in blue or it's all in red. May be very nice, but not very interesting.
I don't feel that the conductor has real power. The orchestra has the power, and every member of it knows instantaneously if you're just beating time.
In difficult times, people just like to hear music. They like to be moved by what they hear. And music speaks different languages.
In Paris they have special wheelchairs that go through every doorway. They don't change the doorways, they change the wheelchairs. To hell with the people! If someone weighs a couple more pounds, that's it!
That makes classical music work, the ability to improvise.
So many things can drive you mad as a child, not only music.