Reno, NV—As editor-in-chief of the Gershwin Critical Edition, I’ve been in Reno this week with fellow editorial board member Ryan Bañagale (Colorado College), working with advisory board member Laura Jackson and her orchestra (the Reno Philharmonic) to test drive our new draft editions of An American in Paris (1928/29) and Rhapsody in Blue (1924, original Whiteman jazz arrangement). We’ve also joined forces with the Donald Sinta Quartet, who are featured as soloists in William Bolcom’s Concerto Grosso for Saxophone Quartet and Orchestra, but who also join the Philharmonic to perform the additional saxophone parts required by the new Gershwin editions. […]

This coming Sunday and Tuesday (Feb. 21 & 23), the Reno Philharmonic will be performing the Gershwin Initiative’s new, critically-edited versions of George Gershwin’s An American in Paris and Rhapsody in Blue. We sat down with Laura Jackson, music director and conductor of the Reno Phil, to talk about her experiences with Gershwin, our new editions, and her upcoming concerts. Q: Hello, Laura, and thank you for spending a little time with us.  To get right to it: What are some of the things that excite you the most about your upcoming performances of Rhapsody in Blue and An American […]

We’ve reached an exciting point in our work towards the critical editions of Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris here at the Gershwin Initiative. On February 21st, the Reno Philharmonic and the Donald Sinta Quartet will be performing our current drafts of each work’s critical edition.  This test performance is key to the process of the critical edition, putting the music in the hands of live musicians who help to check and shape our work.  Also on the program are Bolcom’s Concerto Grosso for Saxophone Quartet and Orchestra, and Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. All of […]

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 […]

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 […]

The late David Bowie, a prolific and inventive singer and songwriter, grew famous for his progressive rock style. But in 1998, he did a lovely and little-known take on the old Gershwin standard, “A Foggy Day.” ~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. The music world has recently felt the loss of English musician and pop icon David Bowie, who died on January 10, 2016. Bowie, whose 1969 single “Space Oddity” helped establish his […]

Leslie Caron, female lead for An American in Paris (1951), is to be featured on CBS Sunday Morning this coming Sunday. This January 17, CBS Sunday Morning will be airing a piece on actress Leslie Caron, who starred alongside Gene Kelly as Lise in the 1951 movie An American in Paris. Caron recently came from London to see the current Broadway production of an American in Paris, and took part in the curtain call. The 84-year-old Franco-American actress and dancer was a ballerina in her early career. Her breakout film role was An American in Paris, and she later starred in other successful film musicals, including Daddy Long Legs (1955) and Gigi (1958). Since […]

In the ragtime-infatuated New York of 1918, George and Ira Gershwin’s lives seemed to be pulling in different directions. It only took one song to prove that a partnership between the two brothers would spell success for their musical careers. —– 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.   The First Collaboration: The Story of “The Real American Folk Song” Most histories of George and Ira Gershwin’s popular songs begin with George’s instant hit “Swanee,” […]

Check out this blog post by Richie Gerber on George Gershwin’s busy January 1924!

December 6th at 2:00PM in the Britten Recital Hall, Earl V. Moore Building Cole Anderson presents arrangements of several of George and Ira Gershwin’s songs, George’s Preludes for Piano, and joined by pianists Siyuan Li and Nick Susi the Concerto in F.  Anderson will perform on George Gershwin’s Steinway Model A piano which has been recently restored at UofM.  Posted on our blog is our interview with Anderson about his upcoming recital and his thoughts on playing the Gershwin piano. Cole Anderson will present several Gershwin pieces on December 6th at 2:00PM in the Britten Recital Hall of the Earl […]