For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.
– Jeremiah 29:11
Beloved of God,
The instant Itzhak Perlman rolled onto the stage at Benaroya Hall April 20th, applause erupted from the packed house. The adulation was palpable. And for the next 90 minutes, Mr. Perlman traced his life journey through music and story, sharing with us how a kid born to a working-class family in Tel Aviv in 1945 came to be a preeminent violin virtuoso.
Perhaps you know some of his story. Itzhak’s love affair with the violin began at the tender age three when he first heard a violin played on the radio. In response to his enthusiasm, his parents acquired a miniature-sized instrument for him to play, but when confronted with the squeaks and squawks it made, he lost interest. The following year, he was stricken by polio, which affected his legs, but not—like so many others—his lungs. God endowed young Itzhak both with a rare musical talent and a buoyant and resilient spirit, and at the age of five he returned to the violin. Perlman’s humor was on full display when he mimicked himself at a young age, being goaded by his mother to keep up his practice and—like students everywhere—finding clever ways to work around the mandate!
His first teacher Rivka Goldgart, helped establish a firm foundation so that, at age 10, he was ready to audition for legendary violinist Isaac Stern. Mr. Stern encouraged him to keep up his studies, despite advice from others who thought it would be impossible for Itzhak to have a performing career because of his disability. Not much later, American TV host Ed Sullivan discovered Perlman during a talent-scouting mission to Israel and Perlman was invited to make his first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in New York. That opportunity opened up a new world for Perlman. By the time he was 19, he had appeared on the Sullivan show five more times. Following Isaac Stern’s advice, the family moved to America so Itzhak could continue his studies. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1963, (a milestone that left him quite chagrinned afterward when a newspaper strike prevented him from reading a review of his performance in the NY Times), and, after studying at the Juilliard School, won the prestigious Leventritt Competition in 1964.
Yet, despite all this, there was a thread of doubt that ran through Perlman’s presentation that April evening; not his doubt about his potential but rather the doubt he sometimes perceived in others—particularly music critics—whose early reviews of his performances raised questions: Was it his musicality and technical capabilities that caught their attention? Or was it a mixture of his gifts and their surprise that this young, disabled kid, forced to use crutches to maneuver on stage, could play at all? Perlman raised this issue about others’ doubts in him several times throughout the program before finally putting it to bed. Over time, he acknowledged that, as music critics and reviewers came to know him, they focused less and less on his mobility limitations and more on his artistic brilliance. Thank God.
This thread he spun that evening resonated deeply for me in a personal way.[1] When my father, Rev. Roald A. Kindem, headed up the Office of Communication and Mission Support for the American Lutheran Church in the early 1980’s, Disability Awareness was a growing area of concern for the church and for society at large. A decade before Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act, Dad conceived of a plan to raise awareness among Lutheran congregations by producing a major film on the subject. To fund the film, he proposed a special benefit concert featuring opera singer Irene Gubrud, who was made a paraplegic in a carnival ride accident at age 15, and—you guessed it—Itzhak Perlman. (Dad always thought big!) A St. Olaf College graduate, Gubrud had gone on to study voice at The Julliard School in New York City, where Perlman himself had been a student a decade before.[2] The benefit concert was wildly successful, and provided the funds needed to produce the film: There’s More to Me than What You See, which featured Gubrud, along with Sharon Sayles Belton, later Mayor of Minneapolis, who had a profoundly disabled daughter, and Jeremiah McShane, an Olympic wrestling hopeful, who was made a quadriplegic in a sky-diving accident. Perlman’s play heightened the connection with my father’s work in a profound way.
For his final selection for us that night, Perlman played the tune for which he has become best known throughout the world: the theme from Schindler’s List.[3] It took but a few bars for that soulful melody to draw my tears. Perlman’s ability to embody a story with his violin—in this case the story of human frailty, cruelty, longing, suffering, beauty, and loss—is what, for me, sets him apart. Yet, the evening didn’t end there. For his encore Perlman turned to the stage a last time to perform a buoyant, dancing classic. After taking us to the edge of man’s inhumanity, Perlman seemed intent on leaving us with hope.
God is in the hope business! The sign that hope is possible was given irrevocably on the first Easter when God raised Jesus from the dead. Throughout this Easter season we are called to LEAN INTO THAT HOPE even—perhaps especially—when our lives and the life of the world around us seem to be crumbling and the prospect for hope foreclosing. There is more going on in this world than we can see! The risen One is still afoot, calling us through the Spirit, to faith, hope, and love. At Benaroya Hall April 20th, we who were fortunate enough to be present, experienced hope realized in the person and music of Itzhak Perlman. This month, let’s keep our eyes and ears tuned for signs of hope! And when we find them, share them.
With you, on the Way,
Pastor Erik
[1] I’m writing this column on the 1st anniversary of my father’s death, April 28, 2021.
[2] A recording of Irene singing the Lord’s Prayer can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Emq15rFFmps&t=23s
[3] You can find a recording of Perlman and the Los Angeles Philharmonic here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLgJQ8Zj3AA April 28th is also Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel.
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What does this mean?
