Competition can be the most nerve-racking experience. Some people just thrive on it.

He served as music advisor to the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra from 2002 to 2004. As well as playing and recording the classical music for which he is best known Perlman has also played jazz including an album made with jazz pianist Oscar Peterson and klezmer. He had earlier sung the role in an excerpt from the opera on a 1980 Pension Fund Benefit Concert telecast as part of the Live from Lincoln Center series with Luciano Pavarotti as Cavaradossi and Zubin Mehta conducting the New York Philharmonic.

Itzhak Perlman (Hebrew: יצחק פרלמן‎; born August 31 1945) is an Israeli violinist conductor and instructor of master classes. He is regarded as one of the preeminent violinists of the 20th and early 21st centuries.