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Category Archives: UROP

From the Archives: Operatic Rights for Porgy and Bess

Having piqued the interest of Porgy author DuBose Heyward, George and DuBose correspond to secure the operatic rights of the pending opera. Take a look at George’s May 20th, 1932, letter to DuBose provided by the South Carolina Historical Society.  By Frances Sobolak 1932 was a productive year for the Gershwins. The Boston Symphony Orchestra premiered George’s Second Rhapsody in late January, George composed Cuban Overture in June and July, and the brothers’ Of Thee I Sing became the first musical to win a Pulitzer Prize. In the midst of all this, George and Porgy author DuBose Heyward were working towards […]

Nice Work if You Can Get It: The Gershwin Initiative Provides an Unforgettable Research Experience for Undergraduates

Sarah and Frances, two undergraduates who joined the Gershwin team through the U-M UROP program, would like to step back and say a word about their journey into the world of research with the Gershwin Initiative over the 2015–16 school year.     What’s UROP, Exactly? UROP, the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program, has been introducing undergraduate students to hands-on research experience at U-M for twenty-five years. Through it, students can assist with scholarly research projects alongside U-M professors and faculty, as well as graduate students and undergraduate peers. We, Frances and Sarah, both found a place as research assistants with the […]

Behind the Edition: Education at the Initiative

Kristen Clough talks about our Public Musicology and Education Outreach program and the role our undergraduate researchers play in this project.   Good morning readers! Today I wanted to take a moment to let you in on some of the things going on behind the scenes at the Gershwin Initiative. In addition to our primary goal–creating our critical editions–we have a mission to foster Gershwin scholarship and music scholarship at our university, in our community, and in our K-12 schools.  We call this our Public Musicology and Education Outreach program, through which we seek to blend our musicological research with […]

Dear Dorothy

Check out this letter from George Gershwin to Dorothy Heyward! It offers us a window into the working relationships between George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, and literary couple Dorothy and DuBose Heyward. The famous collaboration between the Gershwins and librettist DuBose Heyward resulted in the creation of one of the best known American operas, Porgy and Bess, whose production forged lasting professional and personal relationships between the three men. George, Ira, and DuBose regularly kept in touch, exchanging new lyrics, novel-to-stage adjustments, and production ideas. DuBose’s wife Dorothy Heyward, herself a playwright, was also a part of this circle and frequently […]

When Blue Was New

When Blue Was New: Rhapsody in Blue‘s Premiere at “An Experiment in Modern Music” In the Roaring Twenties, American bandleader Paul Whiteman embarked on an audacious mission: to organize a classical concert of all-jazz repertoire. To do this, he commissioned a piece from a young George Gershwin, leading to the creation of one of America’s most famous musical compositions. ~Sarah Sisk is an undergraduate English major at U-M’s College of Literature, Science and the Arts. She is working with the Gershwin Initiative as an undergraduate research assistant in the university’s UROP program. In the early 1920s, ragtime was out and […]

Spotlight on DuBose Heyward

DuBose Heyward was at the forefront of Southern literature in the early twentieth century. His novel Porgy contributed to the growing conversation about African Americans in American literature and theater. George Gershwin had been actively seeking an opera libretto when Heyward’s Porgy caught his eye. Frances Sobolak is an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan pursuing a Linguistics major and Music minor. She joined The Gershwin Initiative team in the fall of her sophomore year through the university’s undergraduate research opportunity program. In the early twentieth century, poets in Charleston, South Carolina, pioneered a literary renaissance where a group […]