American composer of jazz, opera and songs for screen and theatre, who became famous for blending classical music with jazz and popular music.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, to a family of Russian immigrants, he began learning piano secretly on his own. When he was 11, his parents realised his talent and decided to give him piano lessons with a teacher who later said: "I have a new pupil who will make his mark, if anybody will. The boy is a genius". In his teen years, he dropped out of high school and began playing professionally piano.
Still in his teens, he became known as one of the most talented piano players in New York. Since then, he broadened his composition skills with the help of a number of mentors and composers and when he was 18, he published his first solo piano composition as well as his first songs. Gershwin's fame was on the rise. He was composing music for musical, shows, venues and songs and in his early 20s he composed his most serious work, the "Lullaby for a String Quartet".
He composed his most popular work "Rhapsody in Blue", when he was 36 in just 3-weeks time. Despite the limited time he had available to compose this work and the fact that the work was almost unfinished at its premiere, it turned out to be an enormous success. Gershwin improvised the music of the piano part while performing.
Gershwin's friend Isaac Goldberg, described the composer’s personality: "He was as simple, as unaffected, as modest, and as charming a youth as one could desire to meet". And he continued "He was fond of parties, and the longer they let him sing and play, the better he liked it. Hosts and hostesses have been known to take advantage of his generosity". However, the critics afflicted Gershwin whenever he crossed the border between classical and popular music. Gershwin seemed indifferent to these critics and rarely showed emotions, but it remains a question as to whether he was actually internalising this aggression around him which might have contributed to the development of his serious health condition. At 38, he started having severe headaches and neurological symptoms and was diagnosed with brain tumour. He died in surgery.
In his short but prolific career, he composed many popular works and songs for Broadway and Hollywood but also for orchestra, blending jazz, blues and pop with classical music.
