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Renowned violinist Itzhak Perlman celebrated his 80th birthday in style recently – by performing the national anthem at a New York Mets baseball game.
Perlman is a long-time fan of the team. Donning his personalised Mets jacket, he took to the pitch at Citi Field, Flushing, NY, on 31 August shortly before the home team took on the Miami Marlins.
His heavily amplified performance of the national anthem was applauded by a crowd of over 43,000 spectators. Later, Perlman shared the challenges of playing in the miked up circumstances, which included playing without earphones and dealing with a two-to-three-second delay.
’That means you have to have real inner rhythm, so that you trust your rhythm and feel it, rather than listen to it,’ said Perlman afterwards. ’Because when you listen to it, you get distracted and you wait for things to happen. So it was a real experience.
’I hope that it sounded OK.’
The Marlins upset the home team, winning the game 5-1.