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George Gershwin
September 26, 1898 –
July 11, 1937
• George Gershwin was born Jacob Gershowitz
at birth in Brooklyn, New York on September
26, 1898.
• He was the second of four children. To Rosa
Bruskin and Morris (Moishe) Gershowitz.
• He was American composer and pianists.
• He wrote most of his vocal and theatrical
works.
• George changed the spelling of the family
name to 'Gershwin' after he became a
professional musician.
• Gershwin tried various piano teachers for two years, and then was
introduced to Charles Hambitzer by Jack Miller.
• Until Hambitzer's death in 1918, he acted as Gershwin's mentor.
• Hambitzer taught Gershwin conventional piano technique, introduced him
to music of the European classical tradition, and encouraged him to attend
orchestra concerts
• In 1924, Gershwin composed his first major
classical work.
• Gershwin stayed in Paris for a short period of
time during which he applied to study
composition with the famous instructor Nadia
Boulanger.
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Gershwin was influenced by French composers of the early twentieth
century.
A man named Maurice Ravel was impressed with Gershwin's abilities,
commenting, "Personally I find jazz most interesting: the rhythms, the
way the melodies are handled, the melodies themselves. I have heard
of George Gershwin's works and I find them intriguing.“
Gershwin asked to study with Ravel. When Ravel heard how much
Gershwin earned, Ravel replied with words to the effect of, "You should
give me lessons.”
**George Gershwin – Blue
arrow
Maurice Ravel – Red Arrow**
• Early in his career Gershwin made dozens of player piano roll recordings.
• Gershwin made a number of solo piano recordings of tunes from his
musicals.
• Gershwin appeared on several radio programs.
• In 1934, in an effort to earn money to finance his planned folk opera,
Gershwin hosted his own radio program titled Music by Gershwin.
• In 1975, Columbia Records released an album featuring Gershwin's piano
rolls of the Rhapsody In Blue, accompanied by the Columbia Jazz Band
playing the original jazz-band accompaniment, conducted by Michael
Tilson Thomas.
• Early in 1937, Gershwin began to complain of
blinding headaches and a recurring impression
that he was smelling burned rubber. Doctors
discovered he had developed a type of cystic
malignant brain tumor know as glioblastoma
mutiforme.
• Some tried to say that this brain tumor came
from a blow to the head by a gold ball , but
the case is still unknown.
• The surgeon's description of Gershwin's tumor as a
right temporal lobe cyst with a mural nodule is much
more consistent with a pilocytic astroytoma, a very
low grade of brain tumor.
• Gershwin died at age 39.