Perlman was born in 1945 in Tel Aviv. His parents, Chaim and Shoshana Perlman, were Jewish natives of Poland and had independently emigrated to Mandatory Palestine in the mid-1930s before they met and later married. Perlman contracted polio at age four and has walked using leg braces and crutches since then[3] and plays the violin while seated. As of 2018, he uses crutches or an electric scooter for mobility.[4]
When Perlman was three years old, he sat and listened attentively to a violin recital on the radio, which inspired him to become a violinist. His mother soon bought him a toy violin, and he quickly taught himself to play melodies. His parents tried to enroll him at the Shulamit Conservatory, but he was denied admission for being too small to hold a violin.[5] Despite his handicap, he began learning the violin a year later. His first teacher was a café violinist. At age five, Perlman was admitted to the Academy of Music in Tel Aviv (now the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music), where he studied for eight years with Rivka Goldgart, a violin teacher of Russian origin, and gave his first recital at age ten.[6][7] He moved to the United States at age 13 to study violin at the Juilliard School in New York City and the Meadowmount School of Music in Essex County, New York,[2] with Ivan Galamian and his assistant Dorothy DeLay.[8]
Career
Performing
Ed Sullivan congratulates 13-year-old Perlman after a concert (1958)
Starting in the late 1960s, Perlman began to tour Europe. He debuted with the London Symphony Orchestra in 1968, performing Tchaikovky's violin concerto under the direction of André Previn.[23] On May 25, 1972, Perlman debuted with the Berlin Philharmonic with the same concerto.[24] This was shortly followed by his debut at the Salzburg Festival with a solo performance of Schubert's Rondo and Fantasy for Violin and Piano and Brahms's Violin Sonata No. 3 with Joseph Kalichstein on August 19, 1972. The next day, Perlman performed Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 4 with the Vienna Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado.[25][26] In the following years, Perlman toured as a soloist worldwide.
In addition to an extensive recording and performance career, Perlman has continued to make appearances on television shows such as The Tonight Show and Sesame Street as well as playing at a number of White House functions.
Although Perlman has never been billed or marketed as a singer, he sang the role of "Un carceriere" ("a jailer") on a 1981 EMI recording of Puccini's "Tosca" that featured Renata Scotto, Plácido Domingo, and Renato Bruson, with James Levine conducting. He had earlier sung the role in an excerpt from the opera on a 1980 Pension Fund Benefit Concert telecast as part of the Live from Lincoln Center series with Luciano Pavarotti as Cavaradossi and Zubin Mehta conducting the New York Philharmonic.
In 2015, on a classical music program titled The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center produced by WQXR in New York City, it was revealed that Perlman performed the uncredited violin solo on the 1989 Billy Joel song "The Downeaster Alexa".
Perlman played at the state dinner attended by Queen Elizabeth II on May 7, 2007, in the East Room at the White House.[32]
He performed John Williams's "Air and Simple Gifts" at the 2009 inauguration ceremony for Barack Obama along with Yo-Yo Ma (cello), Gabriela Montero (piano), and Anthony McGill (clarinet). The quartet played live, but the music played simultaneously over speakers and on television was a recording made two days earlier due to concerns that the cold weather could damage the instruments. Perlman was quoted as saying: "It would have been a disaster if we had done it any other way."[33]
He made an appearance in Disney's Fantasia 2000 to introduce the segment Pines of Rome, along with Steve Martin.
On November 2, 2018, Perlman reprised the 60th anniversary of his first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show as a guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.[34]
Teaching
In 1975, Perlman accepted a faculty post at the Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College. In 2003, he was named the Dorothy Richard Starling Foundation Chair in Violin Studies at the Juilliard School, succeeding his teacher, Dorothy DeLay. He also teaches students one-on-one at the Perlman Music Program on Long Island, NY, rarely holding master classes.
The Perlman Music Program
The Perlman Music Program, founded in 1994 by Perlman's wife, Toby Perlman, and Suki Sandler, started as a summer camp for exceptional string musicians between the ages of 12 and 18.[35] Over time, it expanded to a yearlong program. Students have the chance to have Perlman coach them before they play at venues such as the Sutton Place Synagogue and public schools.[36] By introducing students to each other and requiring them to practice together, the program strives to have musicians who would otherwise practice alone develop a network of friends and colleagues. Rather than remain isolated, participants in the program find an area where they belong.[37]
Conducting
At the beginning of the new millennium, Perlman began to conduct.[38] He took the post of principal guest conductor at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He served as music advisor to the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra from 2002 to 2004. In November 2007, the Westchester Philharmonic announced his appointment as artistic director and principal conductor. His first concert in these roles was on October 11, 2008, in an all-Beethoven program featuring pianist Leon Fleisher performing the Emperor Concerto.
Instruments
Perlman plays the Soil Stradivarius violin of 1714, formerly owned by Yehudi Menuhin and considered one of the finest violins made during Stradivari's "golden period." Perlman also plays the Guarneri del Gesù 1743 'Sauret'[39] and the Carlo Bergonzi 1740 'ex-Kreisler'.
Personal life
Perlman lives in New York City with his wife, Toby, also a classically trained violinist. They have five children, including Navah Perlman, a concert pianist and chamber musician. Perlman is a distant cousin of the Canadian comic and television personality Howie Mandel.[40] He has synesthesia and was interviewed for Tasting the Universe by Maureen Seaberg, which is about the condition.[41]
Discography
From 1960s
Prokofieff: Concerto No.2 in G Minor / Sibelius: Concerto in D Minor (RCA Victor, 1967)
Franck: Sonata for Violin & Piano (Vladimir Ashkenazy) in A Major / Brahms: Trio for Violin, Horn (Barry Tuckwell) and Piano in E flat Major (London Records, 1969)
1980: Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra): Brahms Violin and Cello Concerto in A Minor (w/ Mstislav Rostropovich) (TIE)
1980: Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra): Berg: Violin Concerto/Stravinsky: Violin Concerto in D (TIE)
1981: Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra): Isaac Stern 60th Anniversary Celebration (w/ Isaac Stern & Pinchas Zukerman)
1987: Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra): Mozart: Violin Concertos Nos. 2 and 4
1990: Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance: Brahms: The Three Violin Sonatas (w/ Daniel Barenboim)
1990: Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra): Shostakovich Violin Concerto No.1 in A Minor/GlazunovL Violin Concerto in A Minor
1995: Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra): The American Album—Works of Bernstein, Barber, Foss
^Lee, Ji Hyun (December 26, 2014). "How They Roll". The New York Times. Retrieved December 26, 2014.
^"Israeli Violin Prodigy Admits He Likes Jazz: But Doesn't Play It, Says Lad, 13, Who Overcame Polio to Become Noted Artist". Los Angeles Times. November 29, 1958. p. B1. ProQuest167374800.
.jpg)
