I’m going to see Itzhak Perlman – the recital is 9 months away – April 23 – but, as I told my partners in the excursion, the best violinist in the world has to plan ahead.  He will be 71 years old at the time of the show.  He’s playing the Civic Opera House, home of Chicago’s Lyric Opera, a large and magnificent auditorium I have yet to visit; the venue will be a fun roadside attraction.  This recital is his only engagement in Chicago next year.  He’ll be playing with pianist Rohan De Silva, and the program is as-yet unknown.

This won’t be my first Perlman performance – I saw him almost 25 years ago with the Wichita Symphony.  My hometown musical crew was mounting a big season for their 50^th anniversary – I’ve mentioned it before – my memory is vague, but I think I saw a young Joshua Bell, pianist Lorin Hollander, and flutist James Galway that year as well.  On Perlman, I remember not knowing in advance that he walks with canes and being utterly impressed by everything about him.  At that time Perlman was already considered one of the greatest, of course, but in the ensuing years he has become a living legend.

The program isn’t too important to me, but at the same time I’ll be very excited to know what’s in store; he’s got a while to decide.  I was surprised that even this far ahead the venue is starting to sell out.  I personally wanted and bought the best seats I could get (couldn’t get the best in the house), but I was surprised to see the cheap seats in the wings and up high are all taken already.  The man is beloved!

Thanks for reading.

Ryan