“Someone to Watch Over Me” is one of George and Ira’s most beloved pieces. Many artists perform it as a love song—but few people know that when it was first performed, it was sung to a Raggedy Ann Doll. By Rachel Fernandes “Someone to Watch Over Me” is one of the Gershwins’ most iconic songs, written by Ira for his wife Leonore in commemoration of their marriage on September 14, 1926. The song made its Broadway debut in the smash hit musical Oh, Kay! (1926). Oh, Kay! is a love story about lady’s man Jimmy Winters who is engaged to […]

In 1933, a 139-year-old Pennsylvania “Blue Law” that had prohibited the performance of major musical concerts on the Sabbath was repealed. George Gershwin and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra were the first concert after this repeal. The day before George noted, “I dare say that if beer were banished from Austria, 100,000 musicians would be out of work” (St. Petersburg Times, Nov 20th, 1933). On Sunday, Nov 20 1933, they performed Concerto in F, An American in Paris, and, fittingly, Rhapsody in Blue. To top it all off, Gershwin sold the first ticket to the landmark performance date himself, at 2pm […]

The celebrated Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. put on countless Broadway shows during his career, one of which included a score and lyrics by George and Ira Gershwin. Yet in spite of the fact that all three collaborators had admirable reputations, this particular working relationship was a rather unstable one. By Cassidy Goldblatt Those familiar with Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr.’s 1929 musical comedy Show Girl know that George Gershwin’s score included his newly completed An American in Paris, arranged to open the second act. What many may not be aware of, however, is the fact that An American in Paris was a last-minute […]

DuBose’s mother, Jane Heyward, ventured up to New York City after the premiere of Porgy and Bess, and George Gershwin sent a warm hello her way. By Frances Sobolak Porgy and Bess had its official premiere on September 30th in Boston and its Broadway premiere at the Alvin Theatre in New York City on October 10th. In October 1935, Jane Heyward, DuBose Heyward’s mother, left her abode in Charleston, South Carolina and traveled up to New York City with the intent of, presumably, seeing the newly premiered opera. During Jane’s visit, George Gershwin sent a brief letter to her hotel […]

Before Porgy and Bess premiered in September 1935, it seems that George had made a bet in 1922 that he would produce an opera in ten years. According to The Washington Post, he lost this bet by three years! By Rachel Fernandes Two months before Porgy and Bess’s September 1935 premiere, an article in The Washington Post suggested that George Gershwin had lost a long-standing bet: that he would “have an opera produced in ten years.” Gershwin conveniently couldn’t remember with whom he’d made the 1922 wager, and the article—penned 13 years later—cheekily observed that while he had lost this […]

By Sarah Sisk In 1934, George Gershwin hosted his own radio show, called Music by Gershwin. Although little-known today, this program happens to be crucial to the existence of one of Gershwin’s greatest works, Porgy and Bess. “George Gershwin belonged to the radio age. His genius freshened the life-blood of radio—Music. His growth and triumphs paralleled the magic advances of broadcasting which in a flash introduced his popular melodies to the entire nation.” New York Times, July 18, 1937. So begins a July 18, 1937, New York Times article, written in homage a mere week after the beloved composer’s unexpected […]

PBS will air the tribute concert for the legendary Motown and R&B singer and songwriter on February 10, 2017. By: Sarah Sisk On November 16, the award ceremony and tribute concert for the eighth annual Gershwin Prize for Popular Song was held at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. The Gershwin Initiative’s editor-in-chief Dr. Mark Clague and managing editor, Dr. Jessica Getman, traveled to D.C. to attend the annual concert that celebrates each year’s Gershwin Prize recipient. (Perhaps you have seen some of their photos from the evening on our Facebook page, American Music Institute / Gershwin Initiative.) Smokey Robinson […]

By Sarah Sisk Ira Gershwin, Pulitzer-prize-winning lyricist and supplier of words to some of the most iconic songs in American musical history, may often be referred to as “the other Gershwin”, overshadowed by the popularity of his younger brother George. But while Ira may not always get the attention he deserves, the disparity in the Gershwin brothers’ respective notorieties has led to a sixty-year-running Gershwin joke—and of course poor Ira is the butt of it. The story goes that in the 1950s, a radio disk jockey, when playing a piece written by the Gershwin brothers, attributed the song to “George […]

Just a quick note from me (Kristen) today to share with you some of the reasons my colleagues and I love working here at the Gershwin Initiative and to tell you about the University of Michigan’s Giving Blue Day campaign. Giving Blue Day is the U-M version of Giving Tuesday—Go Blue! Our ability to make rapid progress on our editions (this year we’ve completed drafts of An American in Paris, Concerto in F, the Whiteman-band Rhapsody in Blue, and Porgy and Bess has finally been fully engraved into the music software) depends on donations to support our army of assistants, research travel, and much more.  You can donate […]

In today’s post, Frances traces some of the various transformations (or potential misprints) of the Gershwin family name. George and Ira’s father arrived in New York in 1890 still accompanied by his Russian Jewish name: Moishe Gershovitz. Moishe soon changed his name to the much more Americanized Morris Greshevin, as was frequently the custom with immigrants’ names upon arriving in America. Morris’s wife, Roza Bruskin, similarly became known as simply Rose. By the time of their union in 1895, their marriage license read “Gershvin.” In the 1900 US census, two years after George’s birth, Morris was back to using the […]