George Gershwin

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Lore & Background

Gershwin was born on September 26, 1898, in a second-floor apartment at 242 Snediker Avenue in the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn, to Jewish immigrant parents from the Russian Empire. His birth certificate identifies him as Jacob Gershwine. He began his career as a song plugger on Tin Pan Alley at age 15, earning $15 a week from Jerome H. Remick and Company. His first published song was 'When You Want 'Em, You Can't Get 'Em, When You've Got 'Em, You Don't Want 'Em' in 1916, earning him 50 cents. His first big national hit was 'Swanee' (1919), with words by Irving Caesar, after Al Jolson heard him perform it at a party and decided to sing it in one of his shows. He studied piano under Charles Hambitzer, who remained his musical mentor until Hambitzer's death in 1918, and composition with Rubin Goldmark, Henry Cowell, and Joseph Brody. He moved to Paris intending to study with Nadia Boulanger, but she refused him, afraid that rigorous classical study would ruin his jazz-influenced style; Maurice Ravel voiced similar objections when Gershwin inquired about studying with him. He subsequently composed An American in Paris, returned to New York City and wrote Porgy and Bess with his brother Ira and DuBose Heyward. Initially a commercial failure, it came to be considered one of the most important American operas of the 20th century and an American cultural classic.

Reader's Guide

George Gershwin's significance lies in his synthesis of jazz, popular, and classical idioms, creating works that remain central to the American musical canon. Rhapsody in Blue (1924), orchestrated by Ferde Grofé and premiered by Paul Whiteman's Concert Band, established his signature style and became his most popular work. In 1925 he wrote his Piano Concerto in F, which became an established part of the classical repertoire. His opera Porgy and Bess (1935), though initially a commercial failure, is now regarded as a cultural classic and one of the most important American operas of the 20th century. Gershwin's compositions have been adapted extensively in film and television, with many becoming jazz standards. He died in 1937, only 38 years old, of a brain tumor. His legacy endures through the continued performance and adaptation of his works across genres.

Did You Know?

• Gershwin's first published song, 'When You Want 'Em, You Can't Get 'Em, When You've Got 'Em, You Don't Want 'Em' (1916), earned him just 50 cents.
• He produced dozens of piano rolls under pseudonyms including Fred Murtha and Bert Wynn.
• His 1917 novelty rag 'Rialto Ripples' was a commercial success.
• Gershwin's Of Thee I Sing (1931) was the first musical to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, though as composer he did not participate in reception of the award.
• He died at age 38 from a brain tumor.

Roots in the Tenement – A Boy Meets Music

George Gershwin arrived into the world on September 26, 1898, in a second-floor apartment on Snediker Avenue in Brooklyn's East New York neighborhood. His parents, Morris and Rose Gershwine, were Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire—his father a leather cutter who fled compulsory military service, his mother a furrier's daughter who left Saint Petersburg amid rising anti-Jewish hostility. The family name, originally Gershovitz, was gradually Anglicized as the children grew. George, born Jacob and named for his grandfather, had no middle name and was raised in the Yiddish Theater District, where he and his older brother Ira spent hours in local theaters. For a decade, music was simply absent from his life. That changed around 1908, when a friend's violin recital struck him with an almost physical force. Almost simultaneously, a piano intended for Ira became George's own instrument, and he never let go. By 1913, a pianist named Jack Miller connected him with Charles Hambitzer, who would become his lifelong mentor, teaching him classical technique and dragging him into orchestral concerts until Hambitzer's death in 1918.

Tin Pan Alley and the Road to Broadway

At fifteen, Gershwin dropped out of school to earn a living as a song plugger on New York's Tin Pan Alley, pocketing fifteen dollars a week from Jerome H. Remick and Company. His first published composition, a 1916 novelty number with a tongue-twisting title, brought him a meager fifty cents. The following year he moved to the Aeolian Company, where he recorded and arranged hundreds of piano rolls for reproducing pianos like Duo-Art and Welte-Mignon, often hiding behind pseudonyms such as Fred Murtha and Bert Wynn. He also dabbled in vaudeville, accompanying singers Nora Bayes and Louise Dresser at the piano. By the late 1910s and early 1920s, Gershwin had shifted his focus toward the Broadway stage, teaming up with his brother Ira and lyricist Buddy DeSylva to write theater works. Songs like "Swanee" (1919) and "Fascinating Rhythm" (1924) signaled a new, more ambitious voice. The young composer who once pressed keys for a nickel-a-week publishing house was now shaping the sound of American popular theater, blending the rhythmic energy of jazz with the melodic craft of the Tin Pan Alley tradition he had absorbed as a teenager.

The Paris Question and America's Sound

Gershwin's ambition to bridge jazz and classical music reached its most dramatic crossroads in Paris. He traveled to France hoping to study under Nadia Boulanger, but she turned him down, warning that rigorous academic training would destroy the very jazz-inflected style that made his music distinctive. When he inquired about lessons with Maurice Ravel, he received a similar caution. Undeterred, Gershwin composed An American in Paris (1928) as a kind of answer to those who doubted him, then returned to New York. There, with Ira and playwright DuBose Heyward, he wrote Porgy and Bess (1935), an opera rooted in African-American experience that included the now-iconic "Summertime." Initially a commercial disappointment, the work has since been regarded as one of the most significant American operas of the twentieth century. Alongside Rhapsody in Blue (1924) and his 1925 Piano Concerto, these pieces cemented Gershwin's reputation as a composer who refused to choose between the concert hall and the dance floor, forging a distinctly American musical language from the raw materials of jazz, popular song, and classical form.

A Legacy Cut Short

George Gershwin died on July 11, 1937, at the age of thirty-eight, the victim of a brain tumor. His Hollywood years had seen him compose several film scores, but his most enduring contributions remained in the concert hall and on the stage. Of Thee I Sing (1931) became the first musical to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, though as the composer he was not present when the award was presented. Songs like "Embraceable You" and "I Got Rhythm" have endured as jazz standards, endlessly reinterpreted by generations of musicians. His orchestral works and operatic writing have been adapted for film and television, ensuring that his melodies continue to reach new audiences in new contexts. The trajectory of his life—from a Brooklyn tenement to the world's concert stages in barely two decades—remains one of the most compressed and extraordinary arcs in American musical history. A man who began plugging songs for fifteen dollars a week and ended as a composer whose operas are studied as cultural touchstones, Gershwin left a body of work that still defines what it means to write music simultaneously popular and profound, American and universal.