Itzhak Perlman
Date of birth: 1945-08-31
Place of birth: Tel Aviv, Palestine [now Israel]
Known for: Acting
Also known as:
Biography
Itzhak Perlman (Hebrew: יצחק פרלמן; born August 31, 1945) is an Israeli-American violinist, conductor, and music teacher. 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 at President Barack Obama's inauguration. He has conducted the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Westchester Philharmonic. In 2015, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He has received 16 Grammy Awards, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and four Emmy Awards. Perlman was born in 1945 in Tel Aviv. His parents, Chaim and Shoshana Perlman, were Jewish natives of Poland and had independently emigrated to the British Mandate of Palestine (now Israel) 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 and plays the violin while seated. As of 2018, he uses crutches or an electric Amigo scooter for mobility. Perlman first became interested in the violin after hearing a classical music performance on the radio. At the age of three, he was denied admission to the Shulamit Conservatory for being too small to hold a violin. He instead taught himself how to play the instrument using a toy fiddle until he was old enough to study with Rivka Goldgart at the Shulamit Conservatory and at the Academy of Music in Tel Aviv (now the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music), where he gave his first recital at age 10. He moved to the U.S. at age 13 to study at the Juilliard School with the violin teacher Ivan Galamian and his assistant Dorothy DeLay. Perlman appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show twice in 1958, and again in 1964, on the same show with the Rolling Stones. He made his debut at Carnegie Hall in 1963 and won the Leventritt Competition in 1964. Soon afterward, he began to tour widely. In addition to an extensive recording and performance career, he 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. On July 5, 1986, Perlman performed at the New York Philharmonic's tribute to the 100th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty, which was televised live on ABC. The orchestra, conducted by Mehta, performed in Central Park. In 1987, Perlman joined the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) for its concerts in Warsaw and Budapest as well as other cities in Eastern bloc countries. He toured with the IPO in the spring of 1990 for its first-ever performance in the Soviet Union, with concerts in Moscow and Leningrad, and again in 1994, performing in China and India. ... Source: Article "Itzhak Perlman" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Movie Credits
Small Wonders
1996-10-04
A dedicated music teacher in East Harlem instructs a gaggle of underprivileged children in the art o
Perlman in Russia
1992-05-01
This documentary follows Itzhak Perlman when he travelled to Russia for the first time in 1991, acco
Visions of Israel
2008-06-05
Orchestra of Exiles
2012-10-26
The suspenseful chronicle of how the prodigious Polish violinist Bronislaw Huberman helped save Euro
Here Today
2021-05-07
Veteran comedy writer Charlie Berns, who is slowly but surely losing his grip on reality, befriends
Fantasia 2000
2000-01-01
Blending lively music and brilliant animation, this sequel to the original 'Fantasia' restores 'The
Beethoven - Choral Fantasy and Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello & Piano
2003-02-11
The music is not Beethoven's most familiar, but it is absolutely charming. The concerto is appealing
A Tribute to Victor Borge
2008-10-01
"A Tribute Victor Borge" celebrates the life and work of the beloved international humorist and musi
The Trout
1970-11-08
Christopher Nupen's record of the concert given by five young musicians in the new Queen Elizabeth H
Everyone Says I Love You
1996-12-06
A New York girl sets her father up with a beautiful woman in a shaky marriage while her half sister
The Greatest Love and the Greatest Sorrow
1994-11-07
The Greatest Love and the Greatest Sorrow is a film which sets out to bring the viewer closer, not t
Music of the Heart
1999-10-29
After Roberta Guaspari separates from her husband, she receives encouragement from her mother to tak
We Want the Light
2004-10-22
The struggles of the world’s Jewish people over the course of several centuries are expressed and ex
Music by John Williams
2024-11-01
His unforgettable scores are an essential part of some of the most beloved movies of our time, over
A John Williams Celebration
2015-06-30
For the 2014/15 Opening Night Concert and Gala, the Los Angeles Philharmonic paid loving tribute to
Eugene Ormandy / Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky
1978-01-01
Peter TCHAIKOVSKY -Violin Concerto in D major, Op.35 -Romeo and Juliet, Op.18 Modest MUSSORGSKY
Mister Rogers: It's You I Like
2018-03-06
Join host Michael Keaton to celebrate "Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood," the pioneering children's serie
Itzhak
2017-10-05
From Schubert to Strauss, Bach to Brahms, Mozart to…Billy Joel, Itzhak Perlman’s violin playing tran
Tree of Life: A Concert for Peace and Unity
2018-12-06
Join renowned Israeli-American violinist Itzhak Perlman, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and music
Sesame Street: Put Down the Duckie
1988-10-05
The stars come out on Sesame Street in this fun-filled video featuring the show's most memorable mom
Itzhak Perlman: Virtuoso Violinist
1978-01-01
Documentary on the life and career of violinist Itzhak Perlman, including interviews, archival foota
Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration
2019-11-09
C is for Celebrate! Join host Joseph Gordon-Levitt and the residents of Sesame Street - human and mo
Beethoven: Triple Concerto And Choral Fantasy
1995-09-07
Daniel Barenboim conducts the Berliner Philharmoniker in performances of Beethoven's 'Triple Concert
Beethoven/Brahms - Violin Concertos (Perlman, Barenboim)
1992-05-05
Daniel Barenboim conducts the Beethoven and Brahms Violin Concertos with the soloist Itzhak Perlman.
Beethoven - Triple Concerto Symphony No. 6
2012-09-19
This musical release from the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under the conduction of Itzhak Perlman c
Dvorak in Prague: A Celebration
1993-12-16
Three big names from the classical music scene -- legendary violinist Itzhak Perlman, celebrated cel
Sesame Street | All-Star 25th Birthday: Stars and Street Forever!
1994-05-18
Sesame Street All-Star 25th Birthday: Stars and Street Forever! was a 1994 TV special that aired on
Sesame Street: Sing Yourself Silly!
1990-04-30
Big Bird and his pals are making musical mayhem as they sing the goofiest, nuttiest, silliest songs
Violin Masters: Two Gentlemen Of Cremona
2010-01-01
During the late 17th and early 18th centuries, two violinmakers from the same small town, indeed, th
Earl.
2024-03-26
Earl. profiles the inspiring and complex life of an unknown, brilliant American composer. Earl's sto
The Legendary Victor Borge
2004-05-04
This program contains a collection of comedy and music by Victor Borge including such comedy bits as
The Huberman Festival
2007-06-26
Pinchas Zuckerman, Isaac Stern, Itzhak Perlman, Zubin Mehta, Israel Philharmonic
Jacqueline du Pré: Genius and Tragedy
2025-03-25
Yo-Yo Ma narrates a documentary about the remarkable cellist Jacqueline du Pré, whose life and caree
My Music: Classical Rewind
Hosted by Martin Goldsmith (classical music host on SiriusXM and former host of NPR’s Performance To