Itzhak Perlman is a virtuoso violinist. He is considered by some to be the great violinist living today and is one of the most famous violinists of the last hundred years.
Itzhak Perlman was born in Jaffa, Israel in the year 1945. His birthday is the thirty first of August. His birthplace of Jaffa is in the area of Tel Aviv, where he learned to play violin at the Academy of Music after becoming interested when as a child he had heard classical music on the radio. In America, Itzhak Perlman studied violin with teachers Ivan Galamian and Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School. His first public performance was in 1963 at Carnegie Hall.
During the sixties and seventies, Itzhak Perlman toured the world performing extensively. He also recorded many albums, and made television appearances on shows like the Tonight Show and Sesame Street, becoming well known to Americans.
In the late eighties and nineties, Itzhak Perlman became more involved with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. During this time he toured with them to perform in many countries of the Eastern bloc, including concerts in Budapest and Warsaw. Other locations that he has played with this orchestra during the nineties include China, India, Moscow and Leningrad. At the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary celebration of Tchaikovsky, Itzhak Perlman performed alongside other famous violinists Yuri Temirkanov, Jessye Norman and Yo-Yo Ma. Since the turn of the millennium, Itzhak Perlman has started working as a conductor and musical advisor for groups including the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
As of early 2007 Itzhak Perlman continues to work in music as a conductor / advisor and to perform. He has won several Grammys, including the Grammys for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance and Best Classical Album. The Perlman Music Program, which he founded with his wife in the mid nineties, offers a summer course to gifted string prodigies.