Kids from the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra's Sistema Winnipeg program were given a rare opportunity today to meet a classical music legend. 

Ten students from the program met Itzhak Perlman and got to watch him reherse with the WSO. Perlman is in Winnipeg to perform Beethoven's Violin Concerto at the sold out The Asper Foundation Opening Night Gala Performance tonight, September 16, 2017 at 7:30 pm at the Centennial Concert Hall. 

After the rehersal Perlman answered questions from the kids and posed for pictures with them. 

Jaeda and Cheylene are 10-year-old grade 5 students at King Edward Community School and have been playing violin with Sistema for three years. 

Both said they like the field trips they get to go on with the program, and meeting Perlman was one of their favourite parts of this outing. They are both interested in playing in an orchestra someday and want to learn the music Perlman is performing with the WSO, which is fitting because they are part of the "Beethoven" ensemble in Sistema. 

Perlman was born in Isreal in 1945 and started playing the violin at the age of 5. He studied at the Academy of Music in Tel Aviv and the Julliard School. 

He has performed with orchestras around the world and was granted a Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama in 2015, a Kennedy Center Honor in 2003, a National Medal of Arts by President Clinton in 2000 and a Medal of Liberty by President Reagan in 1986. 

He also has 16 GRAMMY Awards, Four Emmys, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and a Genesis Prize. 

Over the past two decades, Perlman has become actively involved in music education through his work with the Perlman Music Program and the Juilliard School, where he currently holds the Dorothy Richard Starling Foundation Chair.