George Gershwin

American composer and pianist (1898–1937)

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Lived 1898–1937, aged 39United States

United States MusiciansSinger / Musician

Wikipedia
77 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1898–1937
Aged 39
Known for
Brother, Can You Spare…
1975

Summary

Updated 2026-06-08

He wrote the clarinet glissando that opens Rhapsody in Blue, the lullaby "Summertime", and the first musical to win a Pulitzer for drama — all before turning forty. Gershwin bent American sound until jazz, Broadway, and the concert hall couldn't be pulled apart.

Biography

About

Born Jacob Gershwine in 1898, he studied piano under Charles Hambitzer and composition with Rubin Goldmark, Henry Cowell, and Joseph Brody, starting out as a song plugger before writing Broadway shows with his brother Ira and Buddy DeSylva. When he moved to Paris hoping to study with Nadia Boulanger, she turned him down — afraid formal training would wreck his jazz style; Maurice Ravel said the same. He composed An American in Paris anyway, came home, and in 1935 finished Porgy and Bess with Ira and DuBose Heyward, an opera that flopped commercially but later became an American classic. He mov…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from George Gershwin

George Gershwin

said1933

Modern European composers ... have very largely received their stimulus, their rhythms and impulses from Machine Age America.

— p. 386

George Gershwin

said1933

Not many composers have ideas. Far more of them know how to use strange instruments which do not require ideas.

— p. 386

George Gershwin

said1933

A skyscraper is at the same time a triumph of the machine and a tremendous emotional experience, almost breath-taking.

— p. 387

George Gershwin

said1933

When jazz is played in another nation, it is called American. When it is played in another country, it sounds false. Jazz is the result of the energy stored up in America.

— p. 387

George Gershwin

said1933