Pearls of Wisdom with Violin Virtuoso Itzhak Perlman

Today, we are speaking with the legendary violin virtuoso, Itzhak Perlman.

Winner of four Emmy Awards, sixteen Grammys, including a Lifetime Achievement Award, a Kennedy Center Honor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Perlman is a superstar! A status, rarely afforded to classical musicians. He is beloved the world over for his talent, charm, and humanitarian efforts.

He will be inspiring audiences at the State Theatre New Jersey this April as he celebrates his 80th year and performs with his longtime recital partner, Rohan DeSilva. The program will include Mozart’s Sonata for Violin and Piano, No. 3 in B-flat Major; Franck’s Sonata for Violin and Piano in A Major; Dvořák’s Sonatina in G Major; and others to be announced from the stage.

Stay tuned to learn more about Perlman’s outlook on music, education, and life.

Thanks for listening!

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Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

Gina Marie Rodriguez 0:02

This is Gina Marie Rodriguez, and you're listening to the Jersey Arts Podcast. Today I have the distinct honor of speaking with the legendary violin virtuoso, Mr. Itzhak Perlman. Winner of four Emmy Awards, 16 Grammys, including a Lifetime Achievement Award, a Kennedy Center honor, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Pearlman is a superstar, a status rarely afforded to classical musicians. He is beloved the world over for his talent, charm, and humanitarian efforts. He will be inspiring audiences at the State Theater New Jersey this April as he celebrates his 80th year and performs with his longtime recital partner, Rowan DaSilva. Stay tuned to learn more about Pearlman's outlook on music, education, and life. This is exciting for me.

Itzhak Perlman 1:04

Thank you.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 1:04

Of course, of course. You are, you know, one of the world's most famous violinists, and I have to ask you, as someone who started at three years old, there are still people who in their 40s, 50s, 60s haven't found their passion. What does it feel like to know what your calling is at such a young age?

Itzhak Perlman 1:23

Are you are you talking about what does it feel like now, or what did it feel like then?

Gina Marie Rodriguez 1:28

I think both. Both would be in interesting.

Itzhak Perlman 1:31

Well, no, you know, when you're young, you just you just express uh feeling that you want to do something. And in in my case it was um I like the sound of the violin and I said I want to play the violin. So that was very simple. And so uh the question basically is can you do certain things that separate you from somebody who is ordinary at as opposed to somebody who has talent. And I don't know, I mean I guess I I I I was not I was not. I always say that there's so many people today when you look at the internet, um the amount of talented uh players at the very, very early age is is astounding. And uh I don't think I was that kind of of of a talent. I was a good talent, but it was not like if you close your eyes, you thought that you were listening to somebody who was 20 years old. That was not the case. And in a sense, it's uh right now when that we are, you know, my wife started this uh program called the Perlman Music Program for talented young uh string players. And so we hear a lot of people who are sometimes 12, 13, 14 years old, and uh and they uh some of them sound like they're uh totally mature sort of players. And uh we always say, you know, the challenge of them surviving their gift is very serious, you know. Can you survive your gift? That means that if you're twelve and you sound like an amazing you sound like you're twenty-five, what would you sound like when you're eighteen? Those, you know, those like six, seven years that are very crucial in deciding whether the talent is there or whether it's something that, you know, like I said, uh ignorance is bliss. And a lot of things when p when young people play, they don't they're not realizing how difficult it is. It's just it comes very easy. And then a few years later they say, Oh, wait a second, this is tough. I don't know if I can do that, you know. So that's we're talking about the uh the survival of of of the gift. That's always a challenge. And so when we listen to to uh we have a lot of applicants, and when we listen to them, it's always, you know, you can listen to somebody who is incredible, and there's always this question mark will they be as incredible in two years, or three years, or four years, or five years, or will they burn out?

Gina Marie Rodriguez 4:11

Yeah, it's funny you mentioned that because have you heard or used the phrase gifted child syndrome before? Because it sounds exactly like Well, maybe that's what it is. Yeah, I I mean I don't know if this is a real uh real thing or not, but uh a lot of there are a lot for for every talented youngster.

Itzhak Perlman 4:30

Um there are so many examples of failure that we don't know anything about, and that you know, and the people who survive, then we know about those.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 4:43

Exactly.

Marriage And The Perlman Music Program

Itzhak Perlman 4:43

But exactly but a lot of it is a lot of it is is Zlaq is also has to do with parents, how parents handle their very, very gifted child and so on. It's it there's there's so many so many parts of it that have to fit and have to be just right. What kind of childhood that this person has. Because you know, when you make a commitment to to do something, and if you're seriously gifted, you have to invest an awful lot of time. You know, it it's it's not just playing the violin or the cello or the viol, it's playing tennis, uh ice skating. Uh any any any game that that that uh youngsters can uh shine demands an awful lot of commitment. And that doesn't always work, you know? And when it does, then it's very good. Absolutely rare, but it's rare.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 5:39

Well, talent can only take you so far, right? And then it becomes a choice. You have to decide to commit to that and to rehearse or practice or whatever it may be. I you brought up the the Prolman program, and I did want to talk to you a little bit about that. I I believe that was it was first founded by your wife.

Itzhak Perlman 5:56

She she that was her idea, absolutely her idea.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 5:59

Okay. So I thought so. I wanted to ask you about look, as a as a single woman who looks at power couples uh with admiration. I feel like two artists together equate to power couple. And I wanted to ask you, how does that relationship work? You've been married for over 50 years and two creative minds.

Itzhak Perlman 6:18

Very soon, 60.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 6:19

60 years.

Itzhak Perlman 6:20

Oh god, well, very soon. Next, next our next the next anniversary will be 60.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 6:25

Well, happy almost 60 years. That's so exciting. But it it's it begs the question for me how do two creative minds work? Do you ever butt heads, or does it actually just mean that you you're in sync much of the time?

Itzhak Perlman 6:39

We are in sync. We're in sync much of the time. Sometimes uh we think you know, one of us thinks something uh and then the other person finishes the idea. It's it you know, it's very rare that that uh some one of us says something and they said, Are you crazy? What do you you know? I mean, we are always on the same sort of same burner, you know, in the kitchen, uh in the kitchen of our minds. And you know, I mean, uh Toby is uh uh when we met in school, you know, she's a violinist and and we studied with the same teachers and so on and so forth. So it was always something that uh we were very, very much in tune with each other. And uh, you know, that idea of the Prime Min Music Program was totally her idea. And I at at in the beginning, I had absolutely nothing to do with it because it was her idea, it was her dream, as she always says, it's Toby's dream. And uh and then she sort of pulled me in by she said, Would you coach, would you help us out? And and very s very slowly, like it took one year, not very slowly, and I was kind of very, very much involved and still am, uh, very, very seriously. Um, it it not only is it something for this program that I give, but that program gives me things. I mean it started it started me seriously on conducting, because uh there are we we have a um uh an orchestra made of the members of the of the program of the string orchestra, which I conduct. Uh and uh and then of course the teaching. You know, I do a lot of teaching there, you know. I I I started off uh with before the program I was already teaching, but in that program it made it extremely intense and very, very serious. And so that program gave me a lot, and you know, uh whenever Toby thinks she, you know, her she basically has amazing imagination as to what to do. I mean, for example, all the all the kids who are in the program, they sing in chorus. We're not we're not singers, but we have a wonderful chorus master, and we sing in chorus. Why do we do that? First of all, it's it's another uh uh uh example of of socializing with things that are probably we are a lot of the kids are on equal unequal levels, meaning that they can't really sing. But but by the time we are finished, we sound great. And uh I I help a little bit in the bass section and so on and so forth. So so things like that that that and of course the the it's very, very difficult to explain why this program is so amazing. Uh and uh when people just visit us, uh they they understand because there is there's an atmosphere there that uh a lack of uh of competition between the participants. The only competition that you can think about is to get into the program. And the program is very small, you know, we have like 38 kids. We have two kind of programs. You have we have what we call the Littles, which is between the age of 12 and 18. And then we have the program that's a workshop for chairman music uh uh from 18 over, and so on and so forth. So we have like you know, it's basically the whole summer isn't this program. It's it's phenomenal. So anyway, so um this is something that that I'm very, very much involved in, and uh, and as I said before, you know, it's it's it has helped me in my music uh as as well.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 10:29

I mean, I think it's really important to be well-rounded, so that makes sense to me. Uh, do you you also have a daughter who pursued uh music as well, correct? She's a classical pianist, I want to say. Um, how does that make you feel that I don't know if we want to say no?

Itzhak Perlman 10:46

She that's that's a very interesting thing that she has basically stopped playing. Oh and right now what she's doing, which is quite incredible, is she's a baker. She bakes cakes that are just visually, not just tasting, but visually quite incredible. So she's a you know, she's she's switched from one art to another art. And uh, so uh, you know, I'm I'm always um amazed at uh at people who can go one direction and then in the middle can say, Well, you know, I don't know, I've had it this way, I'm gonna go in another direction. Because some people, you know, when they do something and they say they don't even think about changing. And sometimes it's good and sometimes it's not so good, because sometimes they they become very um unhappy with what they do, but yet there's no idea. But she decided that she wanted that she she wanted enough of the travel and all of that kind of stuff, and so she now bakes, and uh she's quite incredible.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 11:48

I think that's amazing, and life is short, so you have if you find another passion. I I personally believe that you should pursue it, but I do have to ask you, where can we find her cakes?

Itzhak Perlman 11:58

It she has a uh website, and the name of the website is Frosted by Nava, because her her name is Nava Frost, so the pun is Frosted by Nava. So you can look at look at uh at her uh at her website, it's quite incredible.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 12:14

Very clever. That's what I'm going to be doing right after this, just so you know. Well, the reason I was asking that was because I I was curious at how it made you feel to see someone follow in your footsteps, but I actually love that she felt safe enough to to leave music. She grew up in this world of music but was safe enough to leave it. So I think that's a good thing. Absolutely.

Itzhak Perlman 12:36

You know, we have the other other children also into music, a little bit uh, you know, not quite, you know, there's so many things that you can do as a musician. It's not necessarily playing the instrument, but it can be uh managing, it can be something that belongs to music. It can be, it doesn't, you know, it's not like uh playing solo. You can play, you can play chamber music, you can teach. Uh there's you know, when I say to my students uh that we are very lucky to be in this wonderful uh profession uh and uh of of music, not because oh, it's fantastic to be able to play concertos with orchestra. Yeah, that's one possibility, but you have so many other possibilities. And a lot of them really are very uh into doing certain things. I mean, uh we have the PMP prominent music program, you know, we have kids all over the all over the world, you know, playing in in fantastic orchestras and so on. But then we have kids who manage festivals, uh, who compose, who teach, and so on. That's that's the beauty of of this of this profession that we chose. That it's not isolate, that it's not just one thing, that you have your choice. It's up to you. And and you need, in order to be successful at anything that you do, whether it's music or sports, whatever it is, you need to have the passion to do it. You know, if you have the passion and the belief that you really want to do something, that's really the number one. It's not like, well, I've got to do it, because you know, that's to make a living. But you have to add that element of passion, because if you believe in what you're doing, then it will be contagious to the people that you deal with in the in a good way.

Disability Advocacy And Accessibility Gaps

Gina Marie Rodriguez 14:31

No, absolutely. I I kind of wish you were around when my mother was upset with me for becoming a theater major because she could have used that explanation at the time. But uh no, everything you're saying is correct. I was about to ask you what advice do you have for aspiring musicians? But I feel like you've already given us a lot of advice, so thank you. Uh there there's one thing I did want to pivot to for a second, though, because you are a disability advocate. And I wanted to talk to you about sometimes the world that we live in, people see disability as a deterrent, especially those who have a passion outside of the norm, whether that's becoming a musician or becoming an actor or becoming a sports, uh, what do you call them? Athletes, that's the word. Um, so do you have advice for those who are navigating the world with a disability who are unfortunately hearing uh that you can't do that, don't do that. How do you how do you recommend fighting against that?

Itzhak Perlman 15:30

You have you have to have a belief uh uh in what you want to do and what you can do. And I always say separate your abilities from your disabilities. That's the most important thing. Uh if you separate it then then and you concentrate on what you can do. I'm not saying that you enter, you know, if if you have a problem walking, uh, or you can't walk, I'm not saying that you have to enter the uh hundred-meter dash and something, you know, but you have to you have to do what are you good at. And there's so many things that that your talent shines, um, and and you can choose those things. And if you're good at that, now obviously the the problems of uh of um people's uh way that they look at people with disabilities, that is a question of one has to talk about it all the time, because that still happens, you know, every time, you know. I mean, I'm I'm traveling and and I have somebody who travels with me, and uh at least half the time when we reach the uh person who you know, whether it's behind the ticket counter or or somebody who checks your luggage and so on, most of uh half at least half of the time, even more, they don't talk to me. They talk to the person with me. It's like you know, if I am in a wheelchair, if I'm in a scooter, somehow they don't feel comfortable talking to me. That still happens. Can you imagine that? You know, with all this stuff, you know, the the Americans with Disabilities Act, you know, which is another problem, because you know, it's there's a code book and people follow the code book, and it's not always, you know, it's not it's not like everybody has the same disability. And you know, I have these problems getting into hotels, you know, where you would be absolutely amazed at the cluelessness of the architectures in the room. You know, how can a room that's called ADA room, you know, them you know, be so un uncomfortable? You know, I mean, like sometimes they say, well, you know, you put a grab bar here and a grab bar there, boom. It's a it's a it's a room that's an ADA room. Right. It isn't. No, it isn't. I love it, you know, and now this is the latest thing in the hotel rooms. The beds. The beds are now fashionably high. You know, they're like I don't know, uh it's it's like three, four, five feet, six feet. You you need a ladder to get onto the bed. I mean it's unbelievable. And and you know, so you call that, you know, if somebody is in a wheelchair, you have to climb the bed. It's like, I mean, what's going on here? And it's you know, I don't want to ever start about the other day. I was in a hotel where to hang a coat, to hang your clothes, the closet, the bar of the hanging closets, it's eight feet from from from the thing. There's no way, no way you can reach it. What's that? It's called you know, people are not thinking. So uh we still have to deal with that.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 18:33

Yeah, and and it was brought to my attention recently. I mean, obviously, people who uh are not navigating the world with a disability don't always see these things until it is pointed out. But there has been so much crafted for people who are navigating the world with a disability that actually helps the entire world, right? Even just the the lip of a sidewalk was crafted for um, I think it was initially crafted for strollers, actually, or it was crafted for uh those in in wheelchairs and scooters, but it helps women with strollers as well. So it it I wish we would pay more attention to that because it would help everyone and totally, totally.

Itzhak Perlman 19:15

I mean, if if you when you think about uh what's going on in uh traveling on an airplane, you know, if anybody has to go and use the bathroom, you know, you open the door and it's like a cubicle, you know. It's like you you I mean has to do with business, you know. I mean they don't want to spend at the extra waste, the extra space that will take to make the bathroom really accessible because they might lose a seat or two.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 19:44

I've always wondered about that because I don't actually know. I don't know how anyone does use the bathroom if you are in a wheelchair.

Itzhak Perlman 19:52

People usually uh take stuff to to dry up, you know, so you don't have to go. You know, it's it's it's not it's not pleasant.

New Jersey Concert And Travel Realities

Gina Marie Rodriguez 20:02

No, see, these are things that I wouldn't think of on my own, but I wish if only the world were different, I guess. But one day it will be. One day it will be. Anyway, while while we get close to the end here, I do want to ask you uh about your upcoming performance at the State Theater in New Jersey. You're fairly local, you're New York-based, right? Are you excited about coming to the state theater?

Itzhak Perlman 20:26

Yes, yes. It's close. I'm uh and the audience is good, I'm sure. And uh it's nice to do it. It's nice to do it. It's it's a it's uh it's a concert without the pain of travel. You know, you just you just drive, you go in, you know, go to the resting room, you relax, then you go on stage, you play, and you go home. You know, that's that's a kind of that's the kind of concerts that I like that do not involve the travel. The travel is just horrible. Horrible.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 20:56

I was gonna ask how you feel about that. You've been doing this a long time and traveling.

Itzhak Perlman 21:01

And it used, you know, can you imagine? I'm I'm so old that when I first started to travel, I left the house an hour before the flight. You went to the airport, you checked your luggage, and then you go to the gate. No lines, no nothing. You just go to the gate. There's nobody who's gonna check or anything like that, and and and boom, and that's it. Right now, I mean, my God, it's it's and of course, right now with all this uh uh situation uh with people are waiting online for for hours and so on. So it's it's it's difficult.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 21:38

It's crazy. Right now, I've seen the lines wrapping outside of the building as well, depending on the airport.

Itzhak Perlman 21:44

It's difficult, it's very difficult.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 21:46

Uh yeah. I uh I mean I have to say I'm glad that my job does not involve travel, but I feel for you.

Itzhak Perlman 21:53

One of my dreams is that uh I don't know if you remember there was a show called Star Trek, and uh and that And they had this thing where you go into an area and they beam you down or they beam you up. That's my dream. That you know, I have to play, let's say, out of town. Instead of going to the airport, I go into a cube cubicle and they beam me to the place and I'm there. That's my dream. Beam me up, Scotty.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 22:17

Yep, absolutely. I'm right there with you because I have a fear of flying. So I've always said, please teleport me. Just like let me stand on a little pad and send me over there.

Itzhak Perlman 22:26

Exactly.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 22:28

Absolutely. Well, I I don't want to take up too much more of your time. You've been lovely. Thank you so much for speaking with me. And uh if there's anything you'd like to to say to audiences in New Jersey, this is your moment.

Itzhak Perlman 22:40

No, I don't I'm looking forward. We're gonna have a good time. I'm I'm playing stuff that I like, and I hope that they would like to to hear what I'm what I'm doing. That's usually what what I do, you know. That's that's the job of a performer is to to show the audience what he or she likes, and I hope it goes uh in the front from the front of the stage into the hall, and so it's gonna be good.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 23:05

It absolutely will. You know what? I have to add this really quickly though, because I'm a toddler at heart and I was re-watching your appearances on Sesame Street because Sesame Street still makes me happy. Um but I was I was listening to you on Sesame Street and and I started crying just because your music is I mean, the way you play is stunning. So I I just wanted to share that. Um point being, I believe that the audiences will be very, very pleased.

Itzhak Perlman 23:29

Thank you. Thank you so much.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 23:32

Well, now that I've gotten to tell Itsock Pearlman that I still watch old and new clips of Sesame Street, don't judge. Find joy where you can, folks. Well, now I can rest. It's Ok Pearlman will be performing at the State Theater, New Jersey, on April 12th at 3 p.m. For tickets and more information about this show, be sure to visit stnj.org. If you liked this episode, be sure to review, subscribe, and tell your friends. A transcript of this podcast, links relevant to the story, and more about the arts in New Jersey can be found at jerseyarts.com. The JerseyArts Podcast is presented by Art Pride New Jersey, advancing a state of creativity since 1986. The show was co-founded by and currently supported by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. This episode was hosted, edited, and produced by me, Gina Marie Rodriguez. Executive producers are Jim Atkinson and Isaac Cernadiaz. And my thanks, of course, to Mr. Pearlman for speaking with me today. I'm Gina Marie Rodriguez for the Jersey Arts Podcast. Thanks for listening.