Itzhak Perlman Says Lifelong Values Forced Him To Scrap North Carolina Concert Over Transgender Bathroom Ban

Image by Getty Images
Itzhak Perlman, the famed Israeli-American violinist who performed at Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration, has become the latest musician to cancel an appearance in North Carolina over the state’s recent bill curtailing antidiscrimination policies for people identifying as LGBT.
“As my fans know, I have spent a lifetime advocating against discrimination towards those with physical disabilities and have been a vocal advocate for treating all people equally,” Perlman wrote on his Facebook page. “As such, after great consideration, I have decided to cancel my May 18th concert in North Carolina with the North Carolina Symphony as a stand against House Bill 2.”
Talking with the Forward over the phone, Perlman elaborated on his decision.
“Since I’d first known about the HB2 situation it was always on the front burner of my thoughts, whether I should cancel or not,” he said. “I felt on the one hand that this law was discriminatory and that it would affect people that don’t deserve to be affected that way. On the other hand, I said if I cancel the orchestra there would take the brunt of this cancellation.”
He decided to go, on one condition. “I said if I’m going to go, I would like to go and voice my opinion,” he said, “so I had a statement prepared which I was going to ask them to insert in the programs for the concert.” Two days before the concert he was told he would not be able to include that insert, at which point he decided to cancel his appearance.
Perlman sympathized with the Symphony’s position. “The orchestra is supported by the state,” he said. “They’re in a difficult situation.” He said the Symphony handled the situation well: “they understood when I said I was going to come, and they understood when I said I was not going to come.”
The North Carolina Symphony has released a statement contending, “The North Carolina Symphony welcomes all people with our hearts and minds open, and we are honored to share our music-making with everyone. However, as a non-partisan organization our performances are not an appropriate forum for political commentary.”
In choosing not to appear in Wednesday’s concert, Perlman is now part of a growing list of musicians cancelling North Carolina appearances in protest of HB2, including Bruce Springsteen, Cyndi Lauper, and Demi Lovato and Nick Jonas.
“I hope that whatever I did in cancelling and whatever musicians do in cancelling will put this anti-discrimination law on the front burner,” Perlman said.
Talya Zax is the Forward’s culture intern. Contact her at [email protected] or on Twitter, @TalyaZax
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 3
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 4
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
In Case You Missed It
-
News Who would protect New York Jews better? Cuomo and Lander trade attacks on the campaign trail
-
News Rabbis revolt over LGBTQ+ club, exposing fight over queer acceptance at Yeshiva University
-
Opinion In Qatargate fiasco, Netanyahu’s ‘witch hunt’ narrative takes cues from Trump
-
Yiddish די הגדה ווי אַ לעבעדיקער דענקמאָל פֿון אַשכּנזישער פּאָעזיעThe Haggadah as a living monument to Ashkenazi poetry
אַמאָל זענען די פּייטנים, מיסטישע דיכטער־וויזיאָנערן, געווען אויבן־אָן בײַ די פֿראַנצויזישע און דײַטשישע ייִדן.
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.