![]() ![]() The news of this success led to Walter Damrosch asking Gershwin in 1925 to compose a piano concerto for the New York Symphony Society. The iconic opening is still familiar to almost every American today. Gershwin almost ran out of time composing Rhapsody in Blue, but it was a huge hit. Paul Whiteman commissioned him to write a work for a “modern music” concert in February of 1924. While the duo did a two-step down Broadway, Gershwin focused on establishing himself as a serious composer of concert and orchestral music. Together they wrote a string of successful musicals, including Of Thee I Sing (1931), the first musical comedy to win a Pulitzer Prize. For 13 roaring years, the team of brothers took Broadway and Hollywood by storm. George wrote the music and Ira was the lyricist. In 1924, George joined creative forces with his brother, Ira, to begin composing and writing popular music for Broadway. While working with Caesar, Gershwin also completed his first Broadway musical, La La Lucille. For five years, Gershwin trusted his ambition, hard work, and musical talent until he rose to fame with his 1919 song “Swanee,” lyrics by Irving Caesar. He dropped out of high school in 1914 to become a “song plugger” for Tin Pan Alley, a collection of publishers that released sheet music for the most popular songs of the day. His family was happy to find he had taught himself piano. While Gershwin did not thrive academically, he was very musically inclined. He was the second of four children, only two years younger than his brother Ira. His parents had immigrated from Russia earlier that decade. Gershwin was born in Brooklyn, New York, on September 26, 1898. George Gershwin is often closely associated with the “Roaring 20s” and the “Jazz Age.” His music, specifically Rhapsody in Blue (1924), swung open the door for a new American music era by combining classical traditions with jazz idioms to create some of the most iconic works of the 20 th century. ![]()
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