Making The Best With What You Have

On Nov 18, 1995, at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City a man came on the stage to give a concert.

He was sticken with polio as a child, and so he had braces on both legs and walked with the aid of two crutches. If you have ever seen him, you will know that getting on stage is no small achievement for him.

He walked across the stage one step at a time, painfully and lowly, it was an unforgettable sight. He walked painfully, yet majestically, until he reached a chair. Then he sat down, slowly, put his crutches on the floor, undid the clasps on his legs, tucked one foot back and extended the other foot forward. Then he bends down and picks up the violin, puts it under his chin, nods to the conductor and proceeds to play.

 Just as he finished the first few bars, something went wrong, one of the strings on his violin broke. You could hear it snap -it went off  with a loud sound across the room. There was no mistaking what that sound meant. People who were there that night thought to themselves that he would have to get up, put on the clasps again, pick up the crutches and limp his way off stage-to either find another violin or else find another string for this one.

But he didn't. Instead, he waited a moment, closed his eyes and then signaled the conductor to begin again.

The orchestra began, and he played from where he had left off. And he played with such passion and such power and such purity as they had never heard before. Of course, anyone knows that it is impossible to play a symphonic work with just three strings. We know that, and you must be knowing that, but that night that violinist refused to know that. You could see him modulating, changing, recomposing the piece in his head. At one point, it sounded like he was de-tuning the strings to get new sounds from them that they had never made before. And that violinist was non other than Itzhak Perlman.

When he finished, that night, there was an awesome silence in the room. And then people rose and cheered. There was an extraordinary outburst of applause from every corner of the auditorium. Every one in the hall were on their feet, screaming and cheering, doing everything they could to show how much they appreciated what he had done.

He smiled, wiped the sweat from this brow, raised his bow to quiet the audience and then he said, not boastfully, but in a quiet, pensive, reverent tone, "You know, sometimes it is the artist's task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have left." What a powerful line that is! It has stayed in the minds of people ever since they heard it. And who knows? Perhaps that is the way of life - not just for artists but for all of us.

So, perhaps our task in this unpredictable, fast-changing, bewildering world in which we live is to make music, at first with all that we have, and then, when that  is no longer possible, to make music with what we have left.

Itzhak Perlman was born on August 31, 1945 in Tel Aviv, then the largest city in that region (now it is in the nation of Israel). His parents, Chaim and Shoshana Perlman, both natives of Poland, had immigrated to Palestine in the mid-1930s before meeting and marrying.

Perlman had wanted to be a violinist after hearing a concert performed on the radio when he was a mere three-years-old. At age four, he lost the use of his legs due to polio.

Shortly after that he began violin lessons at Shulamit High School in Tel-Aviv. His father worked as a barber and bought his young son his first violin from a second-hand shop shortly thereafter for approximately six dollars. By age ten he was performing in concerts and recitals with the Israel Broadcasting Orchestra. Perlman became a distinguished musician in his native Israel prior to entering his teens.

After winning a talent competition to appear on American television, he obtained scholarships and awards that allowed him to stay in New York and study at the Juilliard School with Galamian. He made his professional debut at Carnegie Hall, and in 1964 he won the Leventritt Memorial Competition. These accomplishments led to engagements with many American orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic. He travels around the world performing and teaming with other great musicians. 

He toured his native Israel in 1965, performing concerts throughout and made his British debut in 1968 at Festival Hall with the London Symphony Orchestra. He participated in the London South Bank Summer Music Series in 1968-69 and created a master class in violin at Meadowbrooks Festival, USA, in 1970. Perlman is known for his brilliant technique, direct interpretation and precision in detail. He has brought a new style, individuality and technical ability to classical music and the violin.

If you are interested to know how Izhak was managing with braces on both legs and crutches on both hands see this video. He also talks about things easy and hard!: