George Gershwin

Gershwin's parents emigrated from Russia in about 1891 and he himself was born in straitened circumstances on Manhattan's lower east side. Not until 1910, when the family bought a piano, did he discover his bent for music and his brilliant gifts as an improviser, allowing his extraordinary talent to emerge. Refusing to submit to the discipline of a formal musical education, which he claimed would have stifled his freedom of expression, he found an outlet for his remarkable talent as a songwriter by collaborating with his brother, Ira, on some 500 songs. He was still only 21 when he achieved his first big success with Swanee, sung by Al Jolson, following it up with a whole string of Broadway triumphs. Tiring of popular success, he wrote his next works for more "classical" symphony orchestras: Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris, his Piano Concerto in F and his Cuban Overture were all outstandingly successful, yet he suffered all his life from not being taken entirely seriously by audiences at classical concerts. Uniquely, his works combine elements of jazz with ragtime and blues while at the same time respecting the laws of "serious" European music and borrowing from various effects already pioneered by Liszt, Debussy, and Ravel. First staged in New York in 1935, his "folk opera" Porgy and Bess has since been heard in all the world's great opera houses, bringing Gershwin's name to the attention of the widest possible audiences.