Last Thursday, a friend invited me to the Hollywood Bowl to watch Israeli-born violinist Itzhak Perlman play Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D. Up till then, I hadn’t been to a classic music concert for the longest time, and the only ones I’d been to were the ones my parents had pulled me along, albeit reluctantly. But Perlman is a living legend, and for some odd reason I have never been to the Hollywood Bowl in my two years here.
I’m so glad I went.
I was so moved by Perlman – not just by his brilliance and his music, but by him as a person.
As he slowly made his way across the stage in crutches (he battled polio as a child) – the 10,000-strong crowd gave him a standing ovation until he took his seat. And as I wrote on my Instagram…”From the time he came onstage in crutches to the exquisite strains of his violin to the emotion writ large on his face as he played, he had incredible presence and humility throughout.”
You can watch a shaky but decent quality clip of his performance that night here. It is a beautiful beautiful piece, so awe-inspiring and uplifting. And honestly it made me a little choked up. Here is a man who showed that your circumstances don’t define who you are, and that with perseverance and sheer hard work you CAN achieve your dreams.
Thank you for the magic, Mr. Perlman.
