Background music: the soundtrack to Schindler's List,

by Itzhak Perlman



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Violinist
"That he has accomplished so much with a crippling disability is a source of
amazement and admiration for all who come in contact with this remarkable man."

One of the greatest violinists of our era, Itzhak Perlman was born in Tel Aviv, Israel in 1945. The son of a barber, he took to the violin at an early age, receiving his first lessons at the Music Academy of Tel Aviv. A prodigy from the start, he was taken to the United States at the age of thirteen to participate in Ed Sullivan's Caravan of Stars, a traveling musical showcase for gifted children. At the end of this somewhat grueling tour, he decided to stay in America to study, and he was quickly awarded scholarships by the Juilliard School and the American-Israeli Foundation to study with noted pedagogue Ivan Galamian and his assistant, Dorothy DeLay.

Itzhak and the unmatchably hilarious Victor Borga,
in the concert Mozart by the Masters

Perlman made his formal debut in the spring of 1963 at Carnegie Hall, playing the Wienawski F-sharp minor Concerto with the National Orchestral Association; there happened to be a newspaper strike that week, so no critical notices were recorded. The next year, however, the young violinist entered the prestigious Levintritt Competition in New York (the same contest that helped to launch the careers of Van Cliburn and Pinchas Zukerman) and won first prize. Thereafter, he signed with legendary impresario Sol Hurok, who booked a fifty-city American tour for his rising star.

In January 1965, now an internationally acclaimed virtuoso of the first rank, Perlman returned to Israel for a series of eight concerts with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. The concerts were a sensation; later that year, he repeated this stunning success in New York, where the Philharmonic audience called him back for five encores at the conclusion of a concerto performance.

After a performance of the fiendishly difficult Sibelius Concerto - which Perlman executed with uncommon flair and perfection of technique - New York Times critic Howard Klein wrote, "...truly a sensational violinist...the tone was voluminous - warm, throbbing and dead in tune. The octave playing was only surpassed by the way Mr. Perlman whistled through the short section of the harmonics in the last movement...listening to him play produced joy on every level - technical, musical and above all, human.
For the burly young man has that extra quality that raises music above technicalities -- and that is heart."

For three decades, Itzhak Perlman has enjoyed a peerless career as the best-known - and most in-demand - violinist on the concert stage. He has recorded virtually every major work for the violin; in addition to covering the solo concerto literature, he has teamed with world-class musicians like Pinchas Zukerman, Isaac Stern, Yo-Yo Ma and Vladimir Ashkenazy to record chamber music. He has also experimented with crossover recordings, including a disc of Scott Joplin rags and a project with jazz legend Oscar Peterson.

Perlman has transcended the traditional bounds of musicianship; performer, speaker, teacher, collaborator and friend to countless young musicians, he is an invaluable ambassador for the human spirit. That he has accomplished so much with a crippling disability is a source of amazement and admiration for all who come in contact with this remarkable man. For musicians everywhere, he remain's the "fiddler's fiddler".

"Perlman's soulful violin makes listening even more evocative and heartbreaking."


Itzhak Links:

In the Fiddler's House
A night to remember
Itzhak Perlman and Tradition
Itzhak's Schindler's List soundtrack