Origins & Early Life

Itzhak Perlman (Hebrew: יצחק פרלמן; born August 31, 1945) is an Israeli-American violinist. He has performed worldwide and throughout the United States, in venues that have included a state dinner for Elizabeth II at the White House in 2007, and at the 2009 inauguration of Barack Obama. He has conducted the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Westchester Philharmonic. In 2015, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

Perlman has won 16 Grammy Awards, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and four Emmy Awards. Perlman was born on August 31, 1945, in Tel Aviv. His parents, Chaim and Shoshana Perlman, were Jewish natives of Poland and had independently emigrated to Mandatory Palestine in the mid-1930s before they met and later married. Perlman contracted polio at age four and has walked using leg braces and crutches since then and plays the violin while seated. As of 2018, he uses crutches or an electric scooter for mobility.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

When Perlman was three years old, he listened to a violin recital on the radio featuring the violinist Jascha Heifetz. This experience inspired him to become a violinist. His mother soon bought him a toy...

Contemporary Figures & Related Historical Timelines

• Alan Mulally — Contemporary (Born in 1945) (1945): Aerospace executive credited with revitalizing Boeing and saving Ford Motor Company.
• Anne Frank — Contemporary (Died in 1945) (1945): German-born diarist whose secret writings documented life in hiding during the Holocaust.
• Anne Murray — Contemporary (Born in 1945) (1945): Pioneering Canadian country and pop vocalist with a 40-year global career.
• Caligula — Shared historical date (08-31 · Born) (12): Third Roman Emperor, known for his tumultuous and short reign (AD 37-41).
• Charles Baudelaire — Shared historical date (08-31 · Died) (1867): Master of modern poetry, Baudelaire captured the ephemeral beauty of industrial Paris.
• Anselm Kiefer — Historical peer (Born in 1945) (1945): German painter and sculptor confronting German history, the Holocaust, and myth.
• Anton Webern — Historical peer (Died in 1945) (1945): Radical modernist composer of the Second Viennese School, known for atonal and twelve-tone techniques.
• Albert Ellis — Historical peer (Died in 2007) (2007): Pioneering figure in psychotherapy, founder of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT)
• Alfred Peet — Historical peer (Died in 2007) (2007): Dutch-American founder credited with starting the US specialty coffee revolution.
• Aage Bohr — Historical peer (Died in 2009) (2009): Pioneering Danish nuclear physicist, Nobel laureate for atomic structure theory.
• 1945 Historical Timeline & Archive — Explore world events and figures from 1945
• August 31 (08-31) On This Day — Historical birthdays and events on August 31