George Gershwin Biography

was born in Brooklyn on September 26, 1898, and began his musical training when he was 13. At 16, he quit high school to work as a "song plugger" for a music publisher and soon he was writing songs himself. "Swanee," as introduced by Al Jolson, brought George his first real fame and led to his writing a succession of 22 musical comedies, most with the lyrics of his older brother, Ira. The Gershwin shows include Lady, Be Good; Oh, Kay!; Strike Up the Band; Girl Crazy; and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Of Thee I Sing. From his early career, George had ambitions to compose serious music. These ambitions were realized in some of his masterpieces of American music, among them "Rhapsody in Blue," "Concerto in F," "An American in Paris," and "Second Rhapsody." In the late ’20s, George became fascinated by the DuBose Heyward novel Porgy, recognizing it as a perfect vehicle for opera using jazz and blues idioms. George’s "folk opera" Porgy and Bess opened in Boston on September 30, 1935, and had its Broadway premiere two weeks later. In 1937, George was at the height of his career. In Hollywood, working on the score of The Goldwyn Follies, he collapsed, and on July 11, died of a brain tumor. He was not quite 39 years old.