Words matter. These are the best Itzhak Perlman Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
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!
Believe me, I’ve had interviews where the person says, ‘So when did you start and why? What about your parents?’ I say to them, ‘Please, have you heard of the word ‘Google?’
I’ve been lucky to conduct the very best orchestras in the world: New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Berlin, the London Philharmonic.
If you put your hand on the piano, you play a note. It’s in tune. But if you put it on the violin, maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. You have to figure it out.
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.
I love to work with young kids.
That makes classical music work, the ability to improvise.
That’s the goal, to survive your gift.
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.
I actually wanted to play the violin before I had polio, and then afterwards, there was no reason not to.
Trust your ability!
The thing about talent is that it comes at different ages, sometimes at a very early age. That’s when I find it to be the most challenging.
For every child prodigy that you know about, at least 50 potential ones have burned out before you even heard about them.
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.
For people who are really talented, what you don’t say becomes extremely important. You have to judge what to say and what to leave alone so you can let the talent develop.
I have a very simple philosophy. One has to separate the abilities from the disabilities. The fact I cannot walk, that I need crutches or a scooter or whatever it is, has nothing to do with my playing the violin.
I have just one fiddle. It works, and that’s it. It has been an old friend.
Access Living is a powerful voice for people in the Chicago area who live with disabilities.
I can tell you that many soloists probably wish they could sit.
I feel that you always pay when you are a child.
Preparing for a future in music is an expensive proposition.
‘Kol Nidrei’ is probably the most important prayer in the Jewish religion. It comes on the evening of Yom Kippur. There are so many different renditions of it.
I am playing the violin, that’s all I know, nothing else, no education, no nothing. You just practice every day.
Television will always err on the side of making something not quite as classy as it could be.
I think that music has to do with what kind of passion do you have.
I am an eternal optimist. I always say ‘Yihyeh Tov’ or ‘It’ll get better.’
An amazing gift in a young child is, in some ways, an abnormality.
It is good medicine to go to a concert hall and forget the harshness of what’s going on. It can be a very positive thing.
The problems of the disabled are unpopular.
When you are 8 or 9, you should have a childhood. You should have adolescence. You should go through everything in a normal way.
My oldest daughter is a pianist; she plays concerts. We play together, also.
There are people who are uncanny, who are finished products at a young age. I wasn’t, thank God.
My experience with the Detroit Symphony has been musically very satisfying. They have a wonderful sound, which for me is one of the most important qualities in an orchestra.
When you live in a small country such as Israel, the dream of any musician is to go abroad.
Every person with a disability is an individual.
Architects have to become more aware of exactly what is involved in designing barrier-free buildings and homes.
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.
In the musician, there is a tendency to have a narrowness. It’s all compartmentalized. I am playing the violin; that’s all I know, nothing else, no education, no nothing. You just practice every day.
The difference is that with Ebola, it is such a devastating disease, and there is still no cure. They’re still working on vaccines. The fact of the matter with polio, there is a cure; there is a vaccine.
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.
If you put four different people on a podium conducting the same downbeat, you get four different sounds. It’s a little mysterious and fascinating. There’s so much you can do with motions and body movements besides giving accurate beats.
Sometimes you get from the mouth of kids wonderful things.
I’m an acoustical person.
Teaching is really very, very important. I always tell my students that you should find an opportunity to teach. When you teach others, you teach yourself.
