“Music brings everybody together”: Violinist Itzhak Perlman explains the magic of music
Masterful violinist Itzhak Perlman was born in Israel and has been playing the violin since the age of three. He is well known for his brilliant virtuoso technique and has had his music featured in iconic films such as the Disney movie Fantastia 2000 as well as Schnidler’s List. Perlman has also won 16 Grammy awards for his achievements in music.
He recently spoke to The Globe and Mail about how music has a way of bringing people together and how many of us need music more than ever in this difficult political climate.
“I always felt that music brings everybody together, because music is really an international language,” he explained.
“No matter where you go – whether you go to the Middle East or you go to the Far East or countries that have a strained relationship between each other – and you see that there was a cultural exchange, it’s like a barometer; you feel that relations improve.”
“Music is always the first thing that brings you a signal that relationships are starting to improve,” he continued.
“It brings people together. When you go to a concert hall and you listen to a Beethoven symphony, you are no longer in a country that listens to this or that or [is dealing with whatever] problems. It binds everybody together.”
Perlman also explained how he distances himself from emotionally charged pieces, as one of his more popular pieces features in the film Schnidler’s List. The film is about a man who saved more than a thousand mostly Polish-Jewish refugees from the Holocaust by employing them in his factories during World War II.
“I think about it as the piece [of music]. I try not to think about what it’s associated with. At the beginning, when I first saw the film and then I associated the music with what was happening with the film, it was a very emotional experience,” Perlman said.
“But the more I play it, the more I concentrate on the music itself. Of course what happens in the movie is an organic part of the piece.”