Speaker 1: I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to here's the thing.
Speaker 1: This is it sak Perlman's exquisite vibrato on Bach's first
Speaker 1: violin Sonata. He was mature by the time he made
Speaker 1: this recording, thirty years into a career that started before
Speaker 1: his bar Mitzvah. Perlman doesn't like the word prodigy, but
Speaker 1: it's hard to avoid. At three, he was practicing scales
Speaker 1: on a toy violin. At four, he was studying with
Speaker 1: a great master. At thirteen, he was whisked away from
Speaker 1: his native Israel to the United States to be on
Speaker 1: the Ed Sullivan Show. He won admission to Juilliard that
Speaker 1: same year. From prodigy to master and finally national treasure.
Speaker 1: For sixty years, his life was a blur of world
Speaker 1: tours and TV specials, playing for the Queen and given
Speaker 1: a place of honor on the program for Obama's inauguration.
Speaker 1: Yet it's not Perlman had a difficult childhood, stricken by
Speaker 1: polio in the war torn early days of Israeli statehood.
Speaker 1: Now he gives back at every opportunity, including through the
Speaker 1: Perman Music Program founded by his wife Toby. The summer
Speaker 1: school is located on Idyllic Shelter Island, giving talented kids
Speaker 1: of every background the chance to study with the world's
Speaker 1: greatest musicians. You'll meet Toby and a couple of former
Speaker 1: students at the end of the program. You'll even hear
Speaker 1: the students play virtuoso movement from Mendelssohn's Octette. The whole
Speaker 1: crew joined me live on stage at the n y
Speaker 1: U Screwball Center in Greenwich Village. Ladies and gentlemen, it's
Speaker 1: not perlment before we get into the the real grist.
Speaker 1: Here you and I were talking about the grist, you know,
Speaker 1: the real essence like that the So this is a
Speaker 1: burning question I have. What's your favorite guilty pleasure? Go
Speaker 1: to food or snack late at night? Oh? Let it now,
Speaker 1: now that I'm old, there's no food after at eight o'clock,
Speaker 1: you know, if if I pay for it, if you
Speaker 1: can't eat after, I can't eat it. But then in
Speaker 1: the middle of the night and you give vault. So no, no, no,
Speaker 1: no food. But you grew up food was everything. Food
Speaker 1: was everything, very very guiding force in your life because
Speaker 1: you grew up kind of poor. Correct very no not no.
Speaker 1: What did your dad do you grew up in Tel Aviv.
Speaker 1: What was your father? What was his occupition? My father
Speaker 1: did all sorts of things, you know. He was the
Speaker 1: immigrated he immigrated from Poland to Israel, you know. And uh,
Speaker 1: no professional really, so he did He picked oranges in
Speaker 1: an orchard, he went into construction, anything. He just got
Speaker 1: any job. He was not you know, he did not
Speaker 1: have a particular skill, so he just did whatever it
Speaker 1: is and he learned on the job. And then when
Speaker 1: he met my mother and they somehow got ahold of
Speaker 1: a barbershop and she knew how to cut hair, but
Speaker 1: she taught him how to do that, so he did
Speaker 1: that as well. So he did like everything that he
Speaker 1: had to do to make a living. How many siblings
Speaker 1: did you have? I'm an only child child. Yes. I
Speaker 1: always ask people who have a career similar to your
Speaker 1: career if you understood they have a career similar to Mike.
Speaker 1: Well not really, actually, you know, there aren't many. There
Speaker 1: aren't many, but anybody, but anybody who was a young
Speaker 1: person who especially in this world you're in where they
Speaker 1: cultivate them very young, and in sports too, where they
Speaker 1: get these kids when they're ten years old and they
Speaker 1: kind of know that they're heading to the NBA or
Speaker 1: the NFL or whatever. But you're a very young child,
Speaker 1: and I'm wondering, do you know what you're going through
Speaker 1: when you're a young child, or you're too busy doing
Speaker 1: it to understand what you're inside of when you were
Speaker 1: getting shot through this rocket to become the famous, well,
Speaker 1: when I would look when I was young, Uh, my
Speaker 1: parents thought that I had a good ear because I
Speaker 1: could repeat everything, you know, by singing it. And then
Speaker 1: I said I want to play the violin, and I
Speaker 1: think they told me that I had a nice sound.
Speaker 1: So that was the, if you want to call it,
Speaker 1: the unusual thing about the way I played. I had
Speaker 1: a nice sound. You were playing on what didn't you like?
Speaker 1: A toy violin or But I just started with a toy,
Speaker 1: which I didn't like, so I quit that. And then
Speaker 1: I was playing on something. I don't remember what it was.
Speaker 1: It wasn't any in spectacular. I started really when I
Speaker 1: was like almost five four four and three quarters almost?
Speaker 1: Why what made you do I want it? I want it.
Speaker 1: I like the sound. I love the sound of the violin.
Speaker 1: I heard it on the radio and I said, that's
Speaker 1: what I want to do simple, that's what I want
Speaker 1: to do, And there's no explanation. You know, everybody has
Speaker 1: a different thing that they hear and it sort of
Speaker 1: grabs their imagination. And the violence sound was that and
Speaker 1: I think it was hyper so it was pretty good
Speaker 1: for grabbing the imagination. You know. When I was a kid,
Speaker 1: I saw Butch Cassidy and I said, that's what I
Speaker 1: want to do. I want to rob trains. Very impressionable
Speaker 1: when we're young, But when you're five years old. What's
Speaker 1: the difference between when you teach a five year old
Speaker 1: and a ten year old. I don't teach that young.
Speaker 1: You know, there are people who specialize and then you
Speaker 1: can tell basically, uh something about technique, you know, something
Speaker 1: about what kind of hands do they have? You know,
Speaker 1: it reminds me sometimes, you know, you you see young
Speaker 1: baseball players, you know, and they say they've got soft hands.
Speaker 1: You know, when they catch the ball, that's soft hands. Well,
Speaker 1: it's something like this is similar when you when you play,
Speaker 1: you can see that somebody can get around the violin
Speaker 1: pretty naturally, even though it's not finished or anything like this.
Speaker 1: But at an early age you can already see it,
Speaker 1: so that gives you an inclination as to what's in
Speaker 1: the future, but of course you don't know what's in
Speaker 1: the future. You just and and for me, I personally
Speaker 1: feel that when I hear somebody play at the young age,
Speaker 1: let's say even ten, eleven, twelve years old, if they
Speaker 1: play age appropriately, I'm very happy. What I mean by
Speaker 1: age appropriate is that you can if you close your eyes,
Speaker 1: you think that that's a young person. You know, there's
Speaker 1: there's hope, there is you know, there is talent there
Speaker 1: and and but it's young. You hear it as opposed
Speaker 1: to listening to sometimes if you put on on the internet,
Speaker 1: you know, you hear people who are five, six, seven
Speaker 1: years old who sounds like like the years old. You
Speaker 1: know that amazing and that I find something times is
Speaker 1: challenging because if you're twelve and you sound like you're
Speaker 1: twenty five, what what are you gonna sound like when
Speaker 1: you're eighteen or nineteen? You know, That's that's and that
Speaker 1: I worry about, because that's very very difficult exactly you
Speaker 1: know and what and how do you treach this person?
Speaker 1: And according to your philosophy, at what age do you've
Speaker 1: started a little tougher with them? With how old. Well,
Speaker 1: it's not a question of being tough. It's well, look,
Speaker 1: everybody has their own sort of schedule of development. You know.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you hear somebody at the age of twelve who
Speaker 1: just sound basic, not very very good, but you hear
Speaker 1: something there, and so you have to know what's to
Speaker 1: say and what not to say. I'd like to just
Speaker 1: insert that. You know, what's the great secret of a
Speaker 1: good teacher is not only knowing what to say, but
Speaker 1: knowing what not to say, and especially what not to say.
Speaker 1: When somebody that has great gift and great musical musical naturalness,
Speaker 1: and those that have that great gifts in that natural
Speaker 1: them alone, do you leave them alone hurt their feelings? No, no,
Speaker 1: you don't want to hurt them. No, it's not their feelings.
Speaker 1: It's you don't want to fox around. You know, you
Speaker 1: don't want to, you know, just let the natural ability
Speaker 1: to natural talent develop and usually things get better as
Speaker 1: you grow older, you know, without having to really nitpick
Speaker 1: with everything. And that's that's I find is a danger
Speaker 1: because you know, when a teacher has such incredible talent
Speaker 1: in front of them, you know, they want to give
Speaker 1: you their old So then they become too picky, leave
Speaker 1: it alone, Just leave it alone. During what years did
Speaker 1: you study with gold Guard? I studied with her from
Speaker 1: the age of five until I was thirteen. You studied
Speaker 1: with for eight years, eight years, and then you came
Speaker 1: to the United States to do Sullivan. You were thirteen
Speaker 1: years old. And when you came to do so I
Speaker 1: find that unbelievable. When you came to do Sullivan and
Speaker 1: you're thirteen years old, did you have any idea who Sullivan? Was?
Speaker 1: That what your first idea, there's some guy was exactly No. No,
Speaker 1: I didn't know how how you looked or anything. I
Speaker 1: just I just in Israel they talked about because when
Speaker 1: we came to to Israel to audition a whole bunch
Speaker 1: of people to go on his show, they said there
Speaker 1: they didn't call him Sullivan. They called him Sullivan. That's Sullivan,
Speaker 1: sat Sullivan. Is that Sullivan? That's Sullivan? Oh, Television, I said, okay, television.
Speaker 1: At the minute I heard television said I mean so
Speaker 1: I So I auditioned, you know, and then I was chosen.
Speaker 1: You know that there was there was sent people over
Speaker 1: to audition musicians. Yes, yes, because Sullivan he wanted at
Speaker 1: Sullivan wanted a show only of the isra Eli pard
Speaker 1: of my accent, only of the isra Eli people. So
Speaker 1: it was a variety great Jew and was going back
Speaker 1: to the homeland and the kids. Ever, well, there's some
Speaker 1: people thought his name was that Solomon, but we changed
Speaker 1: the two at Sullivan. It might have been, but but
Speaker 1: you know, so the whole show was an Israeli variety show.
Speaker 1: You've seen this show, you know. He had everybody had
Speaker 1: a monkey dancing, and then he had somebody playing the violin.
Speaker 1: And so in this particular case, it was a pair
Speaker 1: of folk singers that there was to know that we
Speaker 1: didn't have topo and we didn't have them, but we
Speaker 1: had a ballet dancer was fourteen. We had a coloratura
Speaker 1: soprano from yem And I think I was in the
Speaker 1: Department of Human Interest story or chubby story. I don't
Speaker 1: know what I was what I was, but I was cute,
Speaker 1: I think, sorry, very cute. I was cute. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much, thank you so cute. I know when you
Speaker 1: come over you've never been to the US before, your
Speaker 1: mother comes with you. Yes, and you perform on Sullivan. Yes,
Speaker 1: do you remember what that was like to win the show?
Speaker 1: It was slightly exciting. Uh, I didn't know, No, it
Speaker 1: was it was very exciting, you know, and so I
Speaker 1: I kind of played and it was very It was
Speaker 1: over very quickly, you know, because I did the last
Speaker 1: moment of the medlsone concerto and they cut it down
Speaker 1: to about I think two two minutes and forty five
Speaker 1: seconds because that was it. And uh, and he introduced me.
Speaker 1: He was a lovely gentleman, really very very nice. Is
Speaker 1: that what happened after you did Sullivan? Uh? We went
Speaker 1: on a tour in the US, the entire group that
Speaker 1: did Sullivan, we went on a on a tour months. Yeah,
Speaker 1: about three or three or four months. Yeah. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: at the end of the at the end of the tour,
Speaker 1: I went I well, the main thing the challenge was
Speaker 1: to get into the Juilliard School, and that was one
Speaker 1: of it was it was it was that a plan
Speaker 1: for you to go to Juilliard. Yes, when you were
Speaker 1: back in the issue before Sullivan, before before sa it
Speaker 1: was a dream to go to Juilliard, but Sullivan made it.
Speaker 1: But yes, it was a very Julliard And there was
Speaker 1: a teacher there who taught Julia that I heard about
Speaker 1: in Israel. By the name of Glamian, and so we said,
Speaker 1: one of these days, maybe you'll study with Gala and
Speaker 1: Ivan Galamian yea. His assistant at that time was Dorothy Delay,
Speaker 1: and she came and heard me play, and she thought
Speaker 1: that I had a good chance, had a good sound.
Speaker 1: I had a good sound, you know that that was
Speaker 1: my forte is the sound. But then you were about
Speaker 1: fourteen thirteen half fourteen, right around the same sound. So
Speaker 1: what was it like for you? You never lived in
Speaker 1: New York. And again this idea of being like shot
Speaker 1: out of a cannon to have the spectacular career, this
Speaker 1: big ticket career. You want thirteen years old, you want Sullivan.
Speaker 1: You're touring the country, You're gonna go to Juilliard. What
Speaker 1: was your recollection that? Was it intimidating or you don't
Speaker 1: have time to think about that. I didn't really think
Speaker 1: about it because it wasn't really look it wasn't like
Speaker 1: a professional career. It was a specialized career, you know,
Speaker 1: an other ways to play for It was an Ed
Speaker 1: Sullivan concert. It wasn't like I was playing a recital someplace,
Speaker 1: you know, or I was making my debut in Carnegie
Speaker 1: Hall or any thing. Like that. It was a specialized
Speaker 1: kind of concert, you know, and it used to play
Speaker 1: um Also, I used to play for Jewish benefits, you know,
Speaker 1: for the u J and they knew about me, you know,
Speaker 1: because the whole organization, the Jewish organization knew about this
Speaker 1: Sullivan program. So they used some of the people for fundraising.
Speaker 1: And I was, you know, sometimes I was. I would
Speaker 1: be called at the telephone. I would be hired to
Speaker 1: do fifteen minutes or ten minutes at the end of
Speaker 1: the fundraising, you know, and I would appear probably like
Speaker 1: eleven o'clock at night, you know, and I would play
Speaker 1: then gun Bay Block and the Flight of the Bumblebee,
Speaker 1: and that was it. And then I would leave and
Speaker 1: and I would get I would get paid, you know,
Speaker 1: and it was it was great, you know. I played
Speaker 1: while the people were eating their desserts and of kosher
Speaker 1: food and things like that. It wasn't the same people
Speaker 1: like when one night you do fly to the Bumblebee
Speaker 1: and somebody says he was better at Jerry's bar mitzvah,
Speaker 1: so much better. I never did bar Mitzvah's. I never
Speaker 1: did bar mitzvahs. And I didn't and I didn't do Veddings,
Speaker 1: No Veddings. Absolutely. You know, now, when you leave and
Speaker 1: you come to to the United States, when you left
Speaker 1: for the Sullivan trip, was it assumed you were going
Speaker 1: to go home or did you kind of know you
Speaker 1: knew you weren't going home. I knew that I was.
Speaker 1: I was going to stay and did. My dad stayed
Speaker 1: for about a year in Israel and finished selling the
Speaker 1: apartment and do us in the business, and then he
Speaker 1: came and joined us. I even remember, you know, I
Speaker 1: did not see my dad for a year, and the
Speaker 1: only way to get in touch was through letters. And
Speaker 1: then a bit later on, you know, maybe after about five, six, seven,
Speaker 1: eight months, we actually were able to arrange for a
Speaker 1: long distance call from New York to Tel Aviv, you know.
Speaker 1: And at that time, so you're talking about nineteen fifty nine,
Speaker 1: so it was like ten o'clock the morning, you know,
Speaker 1: on the phone rings and I had Hello, Hello. That
Speaker 1: was the connection, you know, that's the connection. And you know,
Speaker 1: we had absolutely and we had in our street where
Speaker 1: I lived, we had no phone. So what we had
Speaker 1: was there was a grocery store that had the telephone.
Speaker 1: So whoever want to make a long distance called we'll
Speaker 1: go to the grocery store and we pick up. So
Speaker 1: that's that's what you knew you were going to stay. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: I learned the language from watching TV and you know,
Speaker 1: listening to the Yankee baseball. Spoke very little English and
Speaker 1: now hardly. I took a class of English in Israel.
Speaker 1: I think I failed. But it's amazing how quickly you learned,
Speaker 1: you know, when you hear the language around you all
Speaker 1: the time, and you were you went to Julia with
Speaker 1: family years. Let's see, until I think nineteen or I
Speaker 1: was nineteen or twenty. I think as I because I
Speaker 1: still I remember still uh doing concerts and having to
Speaker 1: go to class, and you know sometimes I was late
Speaker 1: to a class and I got hell to pay, you know,
Speaker 1: because I just took a flight from Los Angeles. Give
Speaker 1: me a break. You know. I don't know, but you
Speaker 1: didn't go to an English class, you know, I have
Speaker 1: to be that. So but I was, you know, So
Speaker 1: I did both things for a while and then I graduated.
Speaker 1: And is it literally your hand and your brain the
Speaker 1: way they connect. Is it a passion and a spirit
Speaker 1: that you have inside you? Also that helps you play
Speaker 1: the viol When you talk about having a good sound.
Speaker 1: What does that mean? Having a good sound? It means
Speaker 1: that you play the violin and you hear as a
Speaker 1: particular sound and that's you. It's it's something that's individual,
Speaker 1: that's all it is. It's not like I'm not going
Speaker 1: to practice so that I'm going to get a good sound.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about the tone actually to the tone, which
Speaker 1: deals with the beauty of the sound. Sound, of course,
Speaker 1: is tech. My teachers worked on it. You know how
Speaker 1: you use the bowl, you know where you put the
Speaker 1: bow between the strings, and you know what's the direction
Speaker 1: of the bow, the bow speed, etcetera, etcetera. That's the
Speaker 1: it's a healthy sound. But the beauty of the tone
Speaker 1: is something that every person has differently. It's an individual. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you cannot teach that. There's certain things you cannot teach.
Speaker 1: And where do you think your sound comes from? I
Speaker 1: don't know. I mean I really don't know. It's it's
Speaker 1: something that I hear you had when I was four
Speaker 1: and three quarters. So do you find that music become
Speaker 1: you imbue that with even more of your being in
Speaker 1: your spirit because you were limited in the things you
Speaker 1: could do as a child. I don't think so. I'm
Speaker 1: getting everything wrong with you everything, But that's not it.
Speaker 1: But but you're batting, that's good. But you're doing good,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean because you know, No, it's no, Seriously,
Speaker 1: I just I don't think so. I mean, I mean,
Speaker 1: I couldn't say to you. Well, let me see how
Speaker 1: I'm playing without napolio. Now, let's see how I'm playing
Speaker 1: with the polio. I can't I can't say what I'm wondering.
Speaker 1: But I'm wondering if you that Okay, sorry, I mean
Speaker 1: giving you such a hard time. So I'm so sorry. No,
Speaker 1: I mean, I knew this was kinding. I've been around
Speaker 1: you a few times. Always it's always an obstacle. Course,
Speaker 1: but anyway, the the but but you know, what I'm
Speaker 1: saying is is that do you think the spirit of
Speaker 1: the person is that relevant? No, I don't know. I
Speaker 1: love to watch people who are famously like, whether it's
Speaker 1: their actors or or people in sports, and sort of
Speaker 1: try and guess what kind of people they are in private,
Speaker 1: you know, and uh being good and being a wonderful
Speaker 1: person and being a sort of an agreeable, sympathic a
Speaker 1: kind of person. It is not necessarily together, you know.
Speaker 1: I remember my wife always. You know, sometimes we go
Speaker 1: to a concert and we hear somebody who's absolutely amazing,
Speaker 1: and I said, Toby, come on, let's go backstage and
Speaker 1: say hello, and she said, I'd rather not. You know,
Speaker 1: I I don't want to be disappointed the way this
Speaker 1: pression plays. Just let's let's not do it. Let me
Speaker 1: just relax and just enjoy it. Uh you. Many many
Speaker 1: people who conduct, and I'd love to get your opinion
Speaker 1: of this. Many people who conduct are people who have
Speaker 1: good careers as a soloist. They played typically the violin
Speaker 1: of the piano, but they don't necessarily have great careers.
Speaker 1: And then but someone taps them on the shoulders. There
Speaker 1: are you keep time very well, and they moved them on. No.
Speaker 1: But I mean, I mean every every one of that
Speaker 1: I would talk to would say that. To me. I'd say, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, do this one they say. Somebody walked up
Speaker 1: to me when I was like ten years old and said,
Speaker 1: you keep time very well. And they moved them into
Speaker 1: the conducting program whatever. They moved into the viola section.
Speaker 1: That's our ad for the show. Right, No, no, no,
Speaker 1: I might study that viola jokes on no longer applicable
Speaker 1: because the level of viola playing has really risen seriously
Speaker 1: so that you said we should be that too. No,
Speaker 1: it's really viola jokes. You know. Used to be that
Speaker 1: the level was a little bit below, but right now
Speaker 1: it's brilliant. I mean, so many brilliant viola players. So
Speaker 1: it's not but it's still funny, you know. Violin legend.
Speaker 1: It's a Pruman has a special place in his heart
Speaker 1: for the New York Pilharmonic. He and then music director
Speaker 1: Alan Gilbert teamed up for the Phil's opening Galla a
Speaker 1: few years ago. Here films our guest soloist It's a Filman,
Speaker 1: followed by music director has A l film ut Alan Gilbert.
Speaker 1: Gilbert found out he got the job from the Phil's president,
Speaker 1: Zarin Meta, after a particularly miserable bedtime for his toddler's
Speaker 1: We had had a tortuous night and they'd finally fallen asleep,
Speaker 1: and I got a call from Zarin Meta just after
Speaker 1: they had fallen asleep, and he said, I'd like to
Speaker 1: invite you to be our next music director. I said,
Speaker 1: my kids just fell asleep. I can't talk to you.
Speaker 1: But then I called him back and we had seen
Speaker 1: it in a movie where guys like more than being
Speaker 1: the music director of the Philharmonica, I want my kids
Speaker 1: to go to sleep. Clink totally, he will. We all
Speaker 1: know the madness of that moment. The rest of my
Speaker 1: conversation with conductor Alan Gilbert at Here's the Thing dot
Speaker 1: Org coming up It sucked Perman on Alan and Gilbert's art,
Speaker 1: what makes a great conductor? Plus his wife Toby Perlman
Speaker 1: on their music school and the next generation of great
Speaker 1: masters takes on Mendelssohn and my questions. This is Alec
Speaker 1: Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing. It sacked.
Speaker 1: Perlman didn't bring his famous strata varius. He says playing
Speaker 1: takes more effort now than it used to. As you
Speaker 1: get older, everything becomes more difficult and more demanding. Uh oh,
Speaker 1: are you kidding me? Uh? But you know, if you
Speaker 1: do a great piece, you can do it over and
Speaker 1: over again and no matter how I mean for me,
Speaker 1: I mean a perfect example is debatedpen Violent Concerto, which
Speaker 1: is not getting any easier as you get older, because
Speaker 1: but it's not. It's but it's very very difficult when
Speaker 1: you're young as well. It's I call it when when
Speaker 1: my students start the piece, I say, welcome to the
Speaker 1: lifetime journey, because that's what it is. You know, you
Speaker 1: start to play and it's pretty good, and then you
Speaker 1: played again, and you played again and you grow up
Speaker 1: with it. So that's that's what music is about. And
Speaker 1: the minute you think musically like that, especially when you
Speaker 1: repeat something, you're on the right track. Instead of saying, oh,
Speaker 1: I have to do that again, but you know, you
Speaker 1: have to look at the music and you have to say,
Speaker 1: this is going to be yet another experience. You know
Speaker 1: it's it's going to be one way or one or
Speaker 1: another way, but it's not going to be a repetition
Speaker 1: of what I did a week ago or a month ago.
Speaker 1: When you want to sit down assuming that you do this,
Speaker 1: I don't want to assume. But when you want to
Speaker 1: listen to someone else play the violin that you admire
Speaker 1: and you admire their sound, give us an example of
Speaker 1: somebody you listen to for pure tone. The first person
Speaker 1: that comes to mind is Friz Chrysler. Uh. You know,
Speaker 1: you you listen to old recordings of him and you think,
Speaker 1: you know those days that you know, there wasn't there
Speaker 1: wasn't the great advancement in technology and so and that
Speaker 1: it's that you you hear scratches, you hear the tone,
Speaker 1: and you say, oh my god, that is something unbelievable,
Speaker 1: you know, or you know, Menu and had a fantastic sound.
Speaker 1: I mean, everybody had a different kind of sound, but
Speaker 1: sometimes sounds it's apples and orange ice, you know. I mean,
Speaker 1: but that the first Christen that I hear of that
Speaker 1: kind of sound is his. But you can say hello,
Speaker 1: it's this is a very dear friend of mine. By
Speaker 1: the way, Yeah, you should be ashamed of yourself. You
Speaker 1: know that story about the mall Or nine with Alan
Speaker 1: at Lincoln Center and they get down to the end.
Speaker 1: I mean they talk about squeezing at the death. I
Speaker 1: mean they're squeezing the end of the Maller nine. It's
Speaker 1: like it's looks like it's like this cosmic soup. And
Speaker 1: the guy's phone goes off and he sitting They're going
Speaker 1: and no one in his office told me he had
Speaker 1: a new phone, and you cannot, you cannot and put
Speaker 1: the arm on it and the alarm and finally Alan
Speaker 1: stops the performance. They stopped the end of the Mallar nine.
Speaker 1: That was a very special Maller nine. That was a memory.
Speaker 1: It was. It was like a reason. Yes, it was
Speaker 1: like a sausage. It had it had two endings. Now
Speaker 1: you you conduct? Yes? And then when? When did that again?
Speaker 1: And why it began? I tell you it's very funny.
Speaker 1: It began with the Proman Music program. Uh, my wife
Speaker 1: who started this whole thing. She said to me, we're
Speaker 1: gonna have a string orchestra. Could you coach them? So
Speaker 1: I didn't think of myself as a conductor. I thought
Speaker 1: myself as a coach. So I picked up at pencil
Speaker 1: and conducted with the pencil, you know, because if you
Speaker 1: conduct with the baton, you're a conductor. With a pencil,
Speaker 1: you're more of a teacher. You see that I mean?
Speaker 1: And anyway, so that's actually when it started and I
Speaker 1: got some interesting again. I got some nice sounds from
Speaker 1: the orchestra conducting. I find very mysterious, you know, because
Speaker 1: you can have four or five conductors who are absolutely excellent,
Speaker 1: and each one gives you a downbeat and the orchestra
Speaker 1: will sound different with each What do you attribute that to?
Speaker 1: I have no idea, Thank god. What do you think
Speaker 1: makes a good conductor? Oh? Well, obviously knowing the score
Speaker 1: and knowing all of this things. But in the final analysis,
Speaker 1: there is a mystery as to what makes somebody conductor
Speaker 1: phrase in the orchestra play a certain way. I don't
Speaker 1: understand that, you know, a great conductor should understand what
Speaker 1: he or she wants to hear from the orchestra. So
Speaker 1: if I do, let's say a bit of a Brahms symphony,
Speaker 1: what do you say to a great orchestra who have
Speaker 1: performed that hundreds of times? How do you get the
Speaker 1: orchestra to hear pop up up and say, hey, that's
Speaker 1: really good stuff as as opposed to I again, you know,
Speaker 1: so that's that's that's the difference. Well, it's your it's
Speaker 1: my own rendition of what I want what I want
Speaker 1: to hear. So if you say to me, it's high
Speaker 1: Tank doing this smaller piece, he pasces it up, which
Speaker 1: I don't like. And if you show me that it's
Speaker 1: gary if he squeezes every drop out of it, how
Speaker 1: could one movement be almost two minutes longer with someone
Speaker 1: else conducted easily? And it's easily mean they just squeeze it.
Speaker 1: But also, but also if it's too slow, it doesn't
Speaker 1: mean that it's bad. And if it's too fast, it
Speaker 1: doesn't mean that it's bad. If it works. There is
Speaker 1: no such thing as the right temple. If you hear
Speaker 1: that it's too fast, then maybe there's something in your
Speaker 1: background that you're not used to it. Now, tell everybody
Speaker 1: the idea. How did the school start? It was Toby's idea,
Speaker 1: My wife, Toby's idea. It was her dream because we
Speaker 1: met in a school in a summer program during during Juliard,
Speaker 1: sure of course, and so she started this whole thing,
Speaker 1: you know. And it was actually five years ago. So
Speaker 1: this is our anniversary for the program music program and
Speaker 1: yes and uh and it was it was basically for strings.
Speaker 1: And I think we had kids come to our house
Speaker 1: in Long Island and practice scales and you know, like
Speaker 1: at eight o'clock in the morning, you said, Toby thought
Speaker 1: that was the greatest alarm clock. And but we are
Speaker 1: now in Shelter Island. The people, whether whether it's the
Speaker 1: young program or the eighteen program, are they is it
Speaker 1: free of charge? And you're raising money to pay for
Speaker 1: the whole people? We never we never we never refused.
Speaker 1: We never refused for lack of funds. We give a
Speaker 1: lot of people scholarships and scholarships and some uh some
Speaker 1: more some lessons so on, and some if they want
Speaker 1: to pay, they can pay, but it really doesn't matter because,
Speaker 1: you know, the the expense of the program is so
Speaker 1: that even if we were to charge everybody equally, will
Speaker 1: still be in the in the red severely, severely, believe me,
Speaker 1: so really, but it's great. And the program has not
Speaker 1: grown on purpose. You know, we started with about thirty
Speaker 1: eight thirty nine kids and we still have thirty a
Speaker 1: thirty nine kids for the little program. And it's and
Speaker 1: and it's amazing. It's it's very difficult to describe unless
Speaker 1: you go there and just give the experience. We have
Speaker 1: kids playing twice a week works in progress we call
Speaker 1: it whips, you know, where they try new pieces in
Speaker 1: front of an audience and so on. It's it's it's
Speaker 1: great and I've been listening during the summers. I don't
Speaker 1: play concerts. I just teach there and with with other great,
Speaker 1: great faculty, and we have you know, the philosophy of
Speaker 1: a lack once you're in that program, a lack of
Speaker 1: competition between the kids. You know, they all support each other,
Speaker 1: and for me, that's so important. You know that that
Speaker 1: you know, when somebody plays well, they are truly happy
Speaker 1: for them, and when somebody messes up, they go and
Speaker 1: they console them and they really feel for them. It's
Speaker 1: it's it's a it's a real Family's so important. It's
Speaker 1: a great father. It's our problem's wife, Toby Proman, please
Speaker 1: come and join us, Toby, and please welcome Rachel, Lee
Speaker 1: Friday and Randall Gooseby. Thank you, Thank you, Toby. Your
Speaker 1: husband has so kindly dumped the responsibility of explaining to
Speaker 1: all about the school to you. So how did it start?
Speaker 1: I want to say something else first, go right ahead.
Speaker 1: I want to say something about the sound he doesn't know.
Speaker 1: It's like breathing. You don't think about each breath that
Speaker 1: you take. You just do it. And I breathe a
Speaker 1: little differently than you. The sound that he makes comes
Speaker 1: from I don't know, magic or some something that I
Speaker 1: don't understand, unique to him, and that's the only kind
Speaker 1: of sound he can make. I'm stuck with it, right,
Speaker 1: So okay, now ask me a question. I love that
Speaker 1: I believe that I believe in something otherworldly inside you.
Speaker 1: But so the school started when twenty five years ago
Speaker 1: the school started It started because I went to a meeting.
Speaker 1: I was invited to a meeting out in the Hampton's
Speaker 1: people wanted to start a music festival. I wasn't really
Speaker 1: interested at all, and I said that up front, but
Speaker 1: I went and there was the talk talk talk, talk talk,
Speaker 1: and somebody said, and we could have a school, and
Speaker 1: I said, oh, I could do that. I'd like to
Speaker 1: do that. And that was maybe March, and in August
Speaker 1: we ran a two week program. And where did you
Speaker 1: run the program? Initially we ran it at Boys Harbord,
Speaker 1: you know, you know where that is, and they had
Speaker 1: snakes in the rooms and there was no hall to
Speaker 1: play in. The dining room was the concert hall, and yeah,
Speaker 1: it was very exciting. We also had the food. Should
Speaker 1: we should we talk about the food? Now? What food
Speaker 1: did you serve in the early days of the school?
Speaker 1: Mystery meets now for Rachel. Now you are not at
Speaker 1: the school anymore. You went to the school, correct? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I went to the Proman music program beginning in two
Speaker 1: thousand one. And how many summers were you there? I
Speaker 1: was there at the little program for six years, and
Speaker 1: then I went to the Chamber workshop and I also
Speaker 1: attended their Sara Sota Winter Program. How old were you
Speaker 1: when you knew you had a little special something in
Speaker 1: the musical department? I wonder how old were you? Well,
Speaker 1: so I actually asked for a violin for my fourth birthday.
Speaker 1: I saw it on TV on lamp chops play along,
Speaker 1: and and then what happened? The day rolled around and
Speaker 1: I had sort of forgotten about it. But in the
Speaker 1: middle of the day, I think in the afternoon or something,
Speaker 1: I suddenly remembered and then I was like, where's my violin?
Speaker 1: And I got really upset and I started crying. And
Speaker 1: then I think my mom knew I was really serious
Speaker 1: about it. So when I was about four and a half,
Speaker 1: she finally got me one, what about you? Um? I
Speaker 1: started a little bit older when I was seven, Um,
Speaker 1: father time over here. UM. My mother is Korean and
Speaker 1: she grew up in Japan, and um, music education is
Speaker 1: a very big part of their culture, and so she
Speaker 1: wanted me to have music. And for some random reason,
Speaker 1: I chose violent, You're you're going to school where now
Speaker 1: at Juilliard? Now you're a Julliard now and you talk
Speaker 1: about Pearlman, how nurturing it is. Now it's like a family.
Speaker 1: Would you say that Juilliard is the same way. Was
Speaker 1: a little is a little more competitive. It's safe to say, yeah,
Speaker 1: a little bit, but um, I mean so many. I
Speaker 1: mean most of the people I hang out with the
Speaker 1: Juilliard I met at p MP, so I still have
Speaker 1: my my sort of family. Got out of that and
Speaker 1: he said what he said about making a certain sound?
Speaker 1: Do you feel that you have a sound? Are you
Speaker 1: developed by yes? Like Mrs P said, it's kind of
Speaker 1: second nature. It's like breathing, so we kind of focus
Speaker 1: on the difficult stuff. I disagree you have to work
Speaker 1: on your sound. I mean I think all our video
Speaker 1: nights and studio class really you know nailed that in
Speaker 1: my head that you need to work on your goal?
Speaker 1: What do you want to do? What do I want
Speaker 1: to do? Well? For me, I love solo playing, I
Speaker 1: love working with recital partners with pianists, and I love
Speaker 1: chamber music and I also love teaching. So for me,
Speaker 1: having a variety of activities really is the most satisfying.
Speaker 1: How have would you say for both of you? How
Speaker 1: have the students changed and we're coming through the program
Speaker 1: and the twenty years you've been doing it, I can
Speaker 1: tell you then in terms of applicants and admissions. The
Speaker 1: level is higher and high and higher and higher. It's
Speaker 1: like everything else. The kids throw a ball faster, and
Speaker 1: hit the tennis ball faster, and run faster, and swim
Speaker 1: faster and play faster and better. Amazing. No, No, we're
Speaker 1: gonna bring out six other people who've been playing the
Speaker 1: violin since they were eighteen months old. Let's get them
Speaker 1: out here, and then when we're done performing, we're gonna end.
Speaker 1: We're gonna end with this music. Here they come right.
Speaker 1: That was Itsak Proman, his wife and Proman Music program
Speaker 1: founder Toby, and their brilliant violin students, Rachel Lee Priday
Speaker 1: and Randall Gooseby. The artists who made up the octet
Speaker 1: were Rachel and Randall, plus Stella Chen and Keneth Renshaw
Speaker 1: also on violin, Chalee Smith and Joshua ma Chale on viola,
Speaker 1: Nico Olarte Hayes, and iChon Su on cello. The piece
Speaker 1: was the presto from Mendelssohn's octet Opus twenty in e
Speaker 1: flat major, recorded live at n y US Screwball Center
Speaker 1: in Manhattan. I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to here's
Speaker 1: the thing,