Brief Bio:

Itzhak Perlman is a classically trained violin virtuoso, a conductor and the principal owner of the Perlman Music foundation. Itzhak Perlman is easily recognized as one of the greatest violinists of all time, and is known for brilliant playing technique, direct musical interpretation and absolute precision in how he plays. His recordings include not only every available standard violin repertoire, but also music from contemporary composers as well. He has made a name for himself by playing with nearly every serious orchestra across the globe, showcasing his incredible talent in recitals, musical festivals and concerts all over the world. He is known as "the man who plays sitting down" because he lost the use of his legs due to becoming ill with polio at the age of four. Despite his physical shortcomings, he has never had trouble bringing audiences to their feet in appreciation of his incredible musical gifts.

Where He Is Now:

Itzhak Perlman is still a fixture in the field of violin music. He has been conducting in recent years, acting as the principal guest conductor for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He also teaches, especially at the Brooklyn College where he has a faculty post and has been named the holder of the Dorothy Richard Starling Foundation Chair at the Juliard School in Violin Studies. He resides in New York City with his wife who is also a classically trained violinist. They have five children together, and work as a family on the Perlman Music Foundation which gives summer residential courses in chamber music to gifted young string players.

Career Highlights:

Itzhak Perlman has won numerous awards throughout his career as a violinist and conductor, including numerous Grammy awards for Best Chamber Music Performance in 1979, 1981, 1982, 1988 and 1991, as well as Grammy Awards for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance with Orchestra, Best Instrumental Soloist Performance without Orchestra, Best Classical Album, Best Engineered Classical Album and others. In 1980 he was the cover story for Newsweek Magazine. In 1986 he received the Medal of Liberty from President Reagan, and in 2000 he was recognized again with the National Medal of Arts by President Clinton. In 2003 he received Kennedy Center honors.

YouTube Videos:

The first video is a visual/audio clip of Itzhak Perlman playing on Sesame Street and the second one is just auditory with a static picture. Enjoy!

Interesting and Inspirational Quotes:

"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." - Itzhak Perlman

"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." - Itzhak Perlman

"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." - Itzhak Perlman

Photo Credits: 1

Originally posted 2008-10-13 11:01:27. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

• Musician Profile for Isaac Stern American violinist Isaac Stern was born on July 21, 1920 and died on September 22, 2001. During his lifetime, he won several prestigious awards, including the 1982 Sonning Award and a number of Grammys. In addition to receiving recognition for his own works, Stern was also known to have a......
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The violin is also commonly associated with Indian classical music. There is also a written tradition here, but it involves more improvisation than western Classical music offers. On the other hand, fiddle styles of music have preserved aspects of music that Classical violin music lost during the 16th century and 17th century. Many musical selections played with a fiddle are written in scales that the classical violin no longer makes use of. Also, there is a lot more improvisation involved in playing the fiddle, which was especially popular during the 1700s. Classical violinists also play instruments using different tunings, but the most popular tuning is GDAE, which was settled on in the 1700s. Occasional fiddle styles and tunes require changing the way that the instrument is tuned. There are a wide variety of different fiddle traditions ranging from Cajun to Scottish, from Irish to Canadian and from Cape Breton to Old Time.

There are multiple styles of fiddling within different regions, like Irish fiddling styles which vary significantly from one country to the next. Fiddling is not passed down through written music, but rather through oral tradition, as younger fiddlers tend to do their learning directly through older fiddlers. Currently most fiddlers are still learning through one another, either through in-person training or through music recordings.

Oral tradition has a completely different affect on music in interesting ways. Fiddlers may not exactly remember directly what someone else played, and therefore may adapt the music to themselves, playing some notes differently. Fiddlers often play for dances, so they vary the tunes so that they are not simply repeating themselves over and over again while people complete an entire dance set. Some traditions are related historically when it comes to fiddling, which sets it apart from the traditions set forth by violin playing. For example, a song called Devil's Dream was originally a tune from Ireland, but it became an Appalachian Mountain tune throughout history. The Irish version and the Appalachian version differ significantly, and yet there is still something between them that is common to both versions.

Originally posted 2009-01-07 05:47:55. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

• Musician Profile For Mark O'Connor Mark O' Connor was born and brought up in Seattle, Washington. There, while he was growing up and progressing through his teenage years, he entered into and won several national championships on a number of instruments, including but not limited to the fiddle. From 1983, O'Connor moved to Nashville, having......
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Stern was born to Jewish parents in Kremenetz, Ukraine and moved to the United States when he was only ten months old. His mother taught him the joy of music, privately instructing him until 1928, when he attended the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 1928. In 1931, he moved on to work privately with Louis Persinger and then spent another five years with Naoum Blinder after that. He made his first public performance in 1936 when he played in the San Francisco Symphony at the early age of 15.

In 1948, he married ballerina Nora Kaye, but this marriage unfortunately did not last very long. They divorced the next year, in 1949. He re-married in 1951, wedding Vera Lindenblit. They stayed married for 43 years, having three children along the way. Stern married his last wife, Linda Reynolds, in 1997 and was still married to her at the time of his passing at age 81.

In his professional life, Stern recorded concertos written by Samuel Barber, Béla Bartók, Igor Stravinsky, Leonard Bernstein, Johannes Brahms, Johann Sebastian Bach, Beethoven, Felix Mendelssohn, Antonio Vivaldi, and Henri Dutilleux. In 1985, Stern commissioned the Dutilleux concerto L'Arbre des Songes himself. His playing can be found in a number of films, including the famed Fiddler on the Roof. Stern also was the musical advisor for Humoresque, a 1946 film starring John Garfield and Joan Crawford. The film portrayed an up-and-coming violinist and his partner, which greatly appealed to Stern on a personal and professional level.

Stern credits Nathan Milstein, Naoum Blinder, and Arthur Grumiaux as the main influences on his violin playing, with Blinder being his first significant mentor. He teamed up with Eugene Istomin and Leonard Rose to form a talented chamber music trio. The threesome won Grammy awards in 1971 and again in 1992. In 1987, he was given the Grammy for Lifetime Achievement in music, an honor reserved for only the most respected musicians. Along the way, he also received Grammys for Best Instrumental Soloist in 1962, 1963, 1965, and 1982.

His fame and recognition extended well beyond musical circles. In 1979, Stern was invited for an unprecedented visit to the People's Republic of China. This was at a time when outside visitors were still not generally welcome into the Communist country, but Stern and pianist David Golub were welcomed with open arms. He also played a significant part in saving Carnegie Hall from destruction in 1960. Later on, the main auditorium was re-named after him in appreciation for his efforts.

Originally posted 2008-11-17 05:45:51. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Bell's first studies came under reknowned violinists Mimi Zweig and Josef Gingold. He began intensive one-on-one study with Gingold before the age of 12, showing his early love and dedication for music. By the time he was 14, Bell had already performed as a solo violinist with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He attended Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music to study violin in college, after graduating from high school two years early. He was given Indiana University's Distinguished Alumni Service Award for his work only a scant two years after graduating from the school. In later years, he was awarded the Indiana Governor’s Arts Award and named an Indiana living legend.

He made his first performance at Carnegie Hallin 1985 as a member of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. Since then, Bell has made an appearance with virtually all of the top orchestras and conductors in the world. In addition to the traditional array of concertos, he has also performed newer pieces. His music has appeared in several films, including the Oscar-winning soundtrack of The Red Violin. Joshua Bell himself made a cameo appearance in Music of the Heart, a film about music and violinists trying to make their way. Bell's recording of Nicholas Maw's concerto was good enough to win a Grammy award in 1993.

Bell now serves as an artistic partner for the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and occasionally teaches at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He is a member of the selection committee for Kennedy Center Honors musicians and serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor at MIT. He was given the Avery Fisher Prize for classical instrumentalists in 2007. This award is only given out every few years when someone is deemed worth the honor, so this is a major accomplishment in Joshua Bell's musical career.

In one of the more interesting events of Bell's career, he went incognito in a Washington D.C. subway station. Wearing a baseball cap and playing as a street musician, only one out of over 1,000 passersby even recognized Bell. Sadly, very few people even stopped to listen to his music, showing that most people today are not that familiar with classical music. The entire experiment was devised and writted up by Gene Weingarten, a columnist for the Washington Post. The article later won the Pulitzer Prize for 2008.

Video Clips of Joshua Bell:

I particularly like showing the musicians play for Sesame Street as I think it's important to inspire children with the arts. Below is a video clip of Joshua Bell's Making of a Musician followed by Bell playing Beethoven.

Originally posted 2008-11-05 05:46:49. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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• Musician Profile for Itzhak Perlman Who is Itzhak Perlman? Brief Bio: Itzhak Perlman is a classically trained violin virtuoso, a conductor and the principal owner of the Perlman Music foundation. Itzhak Perlman is easily recognized as one of the greatest violinists of all time, and is known for brilliant playing technique, direct musical interpretation......
• Player Profile for Double Bassist Mike Milligan While few people can name a double bass player (though many can name a bass guitar player) some bassists actually break out and perform solo bass. Some even go on to record an entire album of solo bass, like double bassist Mike Milligan. When many people think of a bass,......
• Musician Profile for Yo-Yo Ma Yo-Yo Ma grew up predisposed toward music. Both his parents were active in the performing arts and influenced his musical background. His mother, Marina Lu, was a singer, and his father, Hiao-Tsiun Ma, was a conductor and composer. His family moved to New York when he was four years old.......
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