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.
An amazing gift in a young child is, in some ways, an abnormality.
I've been lucky to conduct the very best orchestras in the world: New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Berlin, the London Philharmonic.
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?'
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.
I always find that there is a real communication between voice and violin.
If you can read, then you can recite Shakespeare. But that's not acting.
The problems of the disabled are unpopular.
For every child prodigy that you know about, at least 50 potential ones have burned out before you even heard about them.
When I came to the United States, I appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show as a 13-year-old, and I played a Mendelssohn Concerto, and it sounded like a talented 13-year-old with a lot of promise. But it did not sound like a finished product.
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!
One of the most important elements in teaching, conducting, and performing, all three, is listening.
I always find Bach to be an expression of a love of life. There's an enthusiasm that's absolutely contagious.
Child prodigy is a curse because you've got all those terrible possibilities.
I think that music has to do with what kind of passion do you have.
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.
Any gifted child can potentially get in real trouble because of the way they are handled.
There are people who are uncanny, who are finished products at a young age. I wasn't, thank God.
The most important thing to do is really listen.
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.
I have always been very proud of my Jewish heritage, which has greatly influenced my music, my world view, and my work as an advocate for individuals whom society often leaves behind.
I actually wanted to play the violin before I had polio, and then afterwards, there was no reason not to.
I'm a great sports fan, you know. I love to watch tennis and basketball and baseball and so on.
When you are 8 or 9, you should have a childhood. You should have adolescence. You should go through everything in a normal way.
Only one of my grandchildren is serious about a musical instrument. The others dabble in it.
My oldest daughter is a pianist; she plays concerts. We play together, also.
I met my wife in music camp. She's got great ears, and we have a relationship where she's not afraid to tell me anything. If something's going on in my playing, she will tell me about it, and that's very, very important.
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.
Whenever I play recitals, the part where I talk about music and my experiences of music, audiences always like it. They feel more involved with an artist who talks to them. It's a nice experience for me as well.
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.
My message is that giving is very important. Giving is a Jewish thing, and I like to talk about that. There's nothing more important, personally, for anybody than being able to give.
'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.
A lot of society tries to put people with disabilities into one cube, and when you think about it, many, many people have different types of disabilities, and you cannot put a code that applies to towards everyone - generally, they can be guidelines, but in the long run, interior designers and architects need more education on the subject.
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.
A sponge has that much absorbent capability and after a while you can pour water over it and nothing stays.
I don't feel that the conductor has real power. The orchestra has the power, and every member of it knows instantaneously if you're just beating time.
When you live in a small country such as Israel, the dream of any musician is to go abroad.
Competition can be the most nerve-racking experience. Some people just thrive on it.
Every person with a disability is an individual.
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.
Television will always err on the side of making something not quite as classy as it could be.
A talented child will have a schedule that is horrendous. You get up and practice, go to school, practice some more, eat dinner, and then you have homework.
I have just one fiddle. It works, and that's it. It has been an old friend.
That makes classical music work, the ability to improvise.
I say to string players in small chamber orchestras, 'it's always easy to become a passenger on the journey in sound, just adding volume to the whole. But if you play in an individual way, it makes the difference between good and great sound in an orchestra.'
Architects have to become more aware of exactly what is involved in designing barrier-free buildings and homes.
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 love to work with young kids.
