Search results
Jerome "Jerry" Gershwin (April 20, 1926 – September 17, 1997) was an American film producer. He was best known for his long collaboration with Elliott Kastner. [1] His credits include Where Eagles Dare (1968) and Harper (1966). He was a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences.
George Gershwin was born as Jacob Gershowitz on September 26, 1898, in Brooklyn, New York. George, the second of four children, was born to Russian Jewish immigrant parents Morris Gershowitz and Rosa Bruskin.
- Story of His Life
- Music of Gershwin
- Last Days
- Images For Kids
Childhood
George Gershwin was born on September 26, 1898, in Brooklyn, New York. His family immigrated to the United States. Gershwin, his two brothers and sister had a close, happy family life. George liked playing games on the streets of New York. He liked exploring the city, but he did not like school or studying. While exploring the city, Gershwin heard jazz and blues music spilling out of public drinking places. However, he did not become seriously interested in music until he heard another boy pl...
Younger days as a student
Gershwin studied classical piano, and he was a first-rate pianist,but his strongest interest continued to be jazz and popular music. He loved playing piano and it was his passion. At the age of fifteen, he left school and went to work in the music business. The New York City street where most music publishers had their offices was called "Tin Pan Alley." The phonograph and radiohad been invented in the late 1800s. But it would be many years before there were musical recordings or regular radi...
Success as a songwriter
Gershwin was now a real composer. The rest of his life was an unbroken record of success. He wrote song after song. His ideas were so endless that he was not even troubled when he once lost some music he had been writing. "There is plenty more where that came from," he said. Gershwin had his first big hit in 1919, when he was twenty-one years old. It was a song called "Swanee." A popular entertainer, Al Jolson, sang the song. "Swanee" was made into one of the first musical recordings. Gershwi...
As a songwriter
One of many examples of the Gershwin's combined work is the song "They Can't Take That Away From Me." The Gershwins wrote the song for dancer and actor Fred Astairefor the film "Shall We Dance." That was George and Ira Gershwin's first movie musical. Many of George Gershwin's songs were first written for musical plays performed in theaters in New York City. These comedies, with plenty of songs, were a popular form of entertainment in the 1920s and 1930s. One of Gershwin's musical plays, "Girl...
Jazz and his music
In the nineteen twenties, there was a debate in the United States about jazz music. Could jazz, some people asked, be considered serious music? In 1924, jazz musician and orchestra leader Paul Whiteman decided to organize a special concert to show that jazz was serious music. Gershwin agreed to compose something for the concert before he realized how little time he had to do it. The concert was just a few weeks away. Gershwin got busy, and, in that short time, he composed a piece for piano an...
Musical works and opera
Gershwin also wrote an opera, "Porgy and Bess. " It was based on a book by DuBose Heyward. It is a tragic love story about black Americans along the coast of South Carolina. "Porgy And Bess" opened in Boston, Massachusettsin 1935. Audiences loved it. But most critics did not know what to think of it. It was not like any other opera or musical play they had ever seen. Gershwin did not care about the critics' opinions. He believed some of his greatest music had gone into the opera. He said he h...
George Gershwin died in 1937, just days after doctors learned he had brain cancer. He died while having surgery to remove the brain tumor. He was only thirty-eight years old. Newspapers all over the world reported his death on their front pages. Everyone mourned the loss of the man and all the music he might have written. Gershwin is still consider...
George Gershwin, c. 1935.Gershwin's mausoleum in Westchester Hills Cemetery1973 U.S. commemorative stamp honoring GershwinGeorge Gershwin and one of his oil paintings, 1931Their Of Thee I Sing, first produced on Broadway in 1931, was the first musical to win a Pulitzer Prize (1932). George Gershwin was born Jacob Gershvin on September 26, 1898, in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants. He began studying piano at age 11.
Jul 4, 2014 · Classics For Kids playlist and episode information. Produced by WGUC. More than anyone else, George Gershwin broke down the barriers between “serious” music and jazz. Learn more about the life and music of this famous American composer this week on Clas...
An American composer and pianist, George Gershwin penned the most recognizable pieces of music. The biography encompasses his childhood, life and timeline.
People also ask
Where was George Gershwin born?
Who is George Gershwin?
Did George Gershwin win a Pulitzer Prize?
How old was George Gershwin when he started playing piano?
How did George Gershwin die?
What did George Gershwin enjoy doing?
George Gershwin (/ ˈɡɜːrʃ.wɪn /; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres.
