“Classical Music Is Not the Easiest Thing at This Time”

“Since the war started, this is the first time I’m talking about my experience and about how I feel,” says Lia Perlov, the principal cellist of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO), at the beginning of our Zoom call on Tuesday. “I don’t even talk about this with my partner or my parents. Because it’s too hard to process. It’s very difficult to put it into a sentence that makes sense, because the shock is so big.” This interview, with Perlov and Boaz Meirovitch, a flutist in the IPO who also works in the orchestra’s management, was originally planned for Monday, but air raid sirens in Tel Aviv made that impossible. Perlov and Meirovitch had to take shelter as best they could. “I live on the sixth floor,” Meirovitch tells me, “so getting to the bunker takes too long. When you hear the sirens, you only have about a minute and a half before the rockets come. So my partner and I just go into the stairwell and hope our house isn’t hit.”