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
The most important thing to do is really listen.
One of the most important elements in teaching, conducting, and performing, all three, is listening.
Nothing is better for my playing than teaching because when you teach, you have to think and you have to listen what other people do. And then all of a sudden, you play yourself and then you say, my goodness, I don't need a teacher. I'm my own teacher. Then I can react to what I'm doing immediately. It really improves.
This young wine may have a lot of tannins now, but in five or 10 years it is going to be spectacular, despite the fact that right now it tastes like crude oil. You know this is how it is supposed to taste at this stage of development.
I always consider myself lucky that I can actually cry listening to some music.
... Beethoven concertos ... Tchaicovsky concertos ... with a lot of these wonderful masterpieces there's always something wonderful to find ... there's always something new to find ...
You decide to be a musician, you have to put in the time.
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.
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.
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.
That's the goal, to survive your gift.