Strings unbound: Violinist Itzhak Perlman leads 20 years of Sarasota training program

Chatting on a Zoom call a couple of days after attending a White House state dinner for the Prime Minister of Australia, renowned violinist Itzhak Perlman and his wife, Toby, are still buzzing over the excitement of the event and the different ways they reacted to the evening.

The founders of the winter Perlman Music Program residency for young string players in Sarasota were at the Oct. 28 dinner that was held amid the Israel-Hamas war and on the night of a mass shooting in Maine that took President Joe Biden away from the party.

“He left the dinner. I saw him leave and thought that’s odd, then he came back,” said Toby Perlman, who described it as a “fun evening, a different experience than I ever had any place else.¨ Their first state dinner was during Richard Nixon’s administration and was “white tie and tails and long gloves for the women. This was black tie, and fun and we like the guy in the White House.”

Itzhak Perlman was thinking about the music. He was supposed to perform, as was the pop group the B-52s, “but they felt it was not the time for it,” he said. Still, he noticed the Marine Band playing in different combinations, “quartets, a harp, a flute duo, and a whole orchestra. And you can always look for people you have only seen on TV and star gaze,” he said.

The Perlmans are now preparing for the 20th-anniversary residency of the Perlman Music Program/Suncoast, the annual winter training program that brings 30 young string players to Sarasota. They study with professional musicians in small groups, master classes and one-on-one sessions. Many of the classes and rehearsals are free and open to the public at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee campus. It is an outgrowth of the original summer PMP program on Shelter Island, New York.

The week culminates with the annual Celebration Concert at 5 p.m. Jan. 6 in the Sarasota Opera House, followed by a dinner at Michael’s on East.

Itzhak Perlman said the program gives “our kids a chance to perform for a serious audience. When we have our works in progress, it gives them an opportunity to experience a certain amount of tension or nervousness, with the adrenaline. It’s good to have that experience in performing.”

Nearly 100 percent of the participants stay with music for a career. “A few drift off to something else, but it’s very few and they do stuff on a really high level. We have a couple of doctors,” Toby Perlman said. “And we had one lawyer, out of 750 alumni, that’s not much,” Itzhak Perlman added.

Everybody is learning

Itzhak Perlman, one of the most acclaimed violinists in the world, said he gets as much out of the sessions as the student participants.

“As a teacher, I always repeat the same old sentence. If you teach others, you teach yourself. I’ve learned what I didn’t like, what makes something not successful and what makes something very successful. Often I’ll say why was that so good, or what was lacking in this performance. As a teacher, you try to verbalize that with the students. For me, the whole teaching this is such a learning experience and for my own way of playing, it’s very helpful.”

Toby Perlman said the program was set up to make it a non-competitive environment. “We are very concerned with group dynamics, people getting along, people being kind. We try really hard in those areas. So far, we have a lot of really fine young men and women coming out of this program.”

Among the alumni are Max Tan, a violinist with the Sarasota Orchestra who recently launched a season of the “Listen Hear” series, and Randall Goosby, who was a guest soloist at a December Sarasota Orchestra program. And PMP/Suncoast is offering more opportunities for veterans of the summer and winter residencies with a series of concerts during the winter and spring.

Here is a look at the lineup for the 2023-2024 Perlman Music Program/Suncoast season.

PMP Winter Residency

Tent events at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee campus will be available Dec. 29-Jan. 5. Most rehearsals and master classes are available for free. The annual PMP Celebration Concert will be held 5 p.m. Jan. 6 at the Sarasota Opera House, 61 N. Pineapple Ave., Sarasota. Tickets are $40-$80. followed by a dinner at the Michael’s on East ballroom, 1212 S. East Ave., Sarasota. Tickets are $250 for the dinner or $300 for dinner and the concert.

‘Remembering Roger’

6 p.m. Jan. 20, Unitarian Universalist Church, 3975 Fruitville Rd., Sarasota.

Pianist David Kaplan, violinists Michelle Ross and Max Tan (who conceived the program), violist William Frampton and cellist Lev Mamuya celebrate the career and life of cellist Roger Tapping, a faculty member who was a member of the Juilliard String Quartet before his death in 2022 at the age of 61. The performance will include Ross’ original “String Quartet – in Memory of Roger Tapping.” Tickets are $30.

‘Punchline Quartet’

7 p.m. Feb. 12, McGuire Hall, Sarasota Art Museum, 1001 S. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota

This group was created in 2022 by violinists Kate Arndt and Ria Honda, violist Sarah Sung and cellist Elena Ariza, all of whom have been part of PMP. They will be performing Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 18, No. 6 in B flat major, Antonín Dvořák’s American String Quartet and Caroline Shaw’s “Entr’acte.” Tickets are $20.

‘Hers’ Carr-Petrova Duo

6 p.m. artist talk, 7:15 p.m. concert March 3. The Harvest, 3560 17th St., Sarasota

Violist Molly Carr and pianist Anna Petrova mark the release of a new album that celebrates female composers from the 1100s to the present day. They will perform a program that includes works by Clara Schumann, Florence Price, Beyonce, Amy Beach and Michelle Ross. Tickets are $40.

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The Ariel Quartet

7 p.m. April 4, The Ora, 578 McIntosh Rd., Sarasota

The popular ensemble, presented with the Jewish Federation of Sarasota-Manatee, is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2023. Violinists Gershon Gerchikov and Alexandra Kazovsky, violist Jan Gruning and cellist Amit Even-Tov, began performing together while they were studying at the Jerusalem Academy Middle School of Music and Dance. They now serve as Faculty Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music. They will perform “American Dream,” a program that looks at musical voices that emerged from the composers’ experiences in the United States. Tickets are available Jan. 1.

For more details on all the Perlman Music Program/Suncoast events: 941-955-4942; perlmanmusicprogramsuncoast.org

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Violinist Itzhak Perlman reflects on 20 years of Sarasota program