<HTML><HEAD></HEAD>
<BODY dir=ltr>
<DIV dir=ltr>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000">
<DIV
style='FONT-SIZE: small; TEXT-DECORATION: none; FONT-FAMILY: "Calibri"; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; COLOR: #000000; FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline'>
<DIV dir=ltr>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000">
<DIV>George Gershwin </DIV>
<DIV> Celebrating George Gershwin in Songs and Stories</DIV>
<DIV>by Howard Reich</DIV>
<DIV>Chicago Tribune, June 6, 2016</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>What is it about George Gershwin's music that makes it sound so fresh and
vital nearly 80 years after his death, in 1937?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Is it the Jazz Age rhythms, which convey irresistibly brash energy? The
poetry of his melodies, which merge blue-note expressivity with the flavor of
Yiddish culture? The pungent complexity of his harmonies, which sound like no
one else's?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Surely it's all of that, and more, these elements and others converging in
landmark works such as the opera "Porgy and Bess," the tone poem "An American in
Paris," the jazz-meets-classical experiment "Rhapsody in Blue," the piano
showpiece Concerto in F and, of course, indelible songs such as "I Got Rhythm,"
"Someone to Watch Over Me," "The Man I Love" and dozens of other American
standards.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>To some, though, Gershwin's music stands as more than just great art to be
admired at every hearing. To them, Gershwin's oeuvre becomes a driving force for
a life in music, as in the case of pianist Richard Glazier, who will present his
multimedia show "Rhapsody and Rhythm: The Gershwin Experience" Saturday night at
the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>"When I was 9 years old, I saw the film 'Girl Crazy' with Mickey and Judy,"
says Glazier, referring, of course, to Rooney and Garland and an event that
changed Glazier's life.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>"That was the first time I heard Gershwin's music. I heard the big band
sound of Tommy Dorsey -- I guess I was an old soul even as a 9-year-old."</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Knocked out by the music, Glazier -- with the help of an aunt -- began
digging deeply into Gershwin's music and era, the two eventually deciding to
send a letter to the master's surviving brother and songwriting partner,
lyricist Ira Gershwin.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>"Dear Mr. Gershwin," the note began. "May I please have a picture of George
to hang on my wall?"</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Four months later the photo arrived, and two years after that young Glazier
traveled from his home in Indianapolis to Beverly Hills to meet Ira Gershwin. In
the decades that followed, Glazier has positioned himself as a connoisseur of
music by Gershwin and his contemporaries, expressing his expertise at the piano,
on TV specials, recordings and every other outlet he can find.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>So all these years later, why does he think Gershwin's music exerted such a
pull on him?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>"It's like what Leonard Bernstein said," explains Glazier. "When you listen
to music of a genius -- whether it's Schubert or Chopin or Schumann or Gershwin
-- you hear two or three bars, and you know it in the dark. It can't be anyone
else. It's got their unique stamp on it. It touches something inside of
us."</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>In Gershwin's case, Glazier believes the composer in his youth "heard the
Yiddish theater, heard music in Harlem (and) fused it together to create this
unique and American art form. Harold Arlen and Harry Warren and Cole Porter and
Irving Berlin -- all these great composers, they all looked up to
Gershwin.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>"And why did they look up to Gershwin? He was able to do what those guys
never would be able to do: take popular idioms and its voices and put it in the
concert hall successfully. They tried to do it, but they were not as successful.
They adored him for that."</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Indeed, though all the songwriters Glazier cites can be considered Gershwin
peers, none composed a concert work approaching the ambition or depth of "Porgy
and Bess," which premiered in 1935 (though Jerome Kern's "Show Boat" of 1927
surely paved the way for Gershwin's magnum opus).</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Nor did any play the piano nearly so brilliantly as Gershwin, whose nervous
energy and aggressive manner are built into scores such as the "Rhapsody in
Blue" and the Concerto in F. Listen to Gershwin's recordings or watch rare film
clips of him playing, and you'll encounter a pianist who's always in a rush,
commands a keyboard technique that allows breakneck tempos and stays as far away
from sentimentality as imaginable.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Perhaps Gershwin contemporary Abram Chasins said it best when he observed,
"The things that made him so special to me were his confidence, force and love
for music; his incredible ease, joyous spontaneity and originality at the piano.
He was the only pianist I ever heard who could make a piano laugh, really
laugh."</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>No one in Gershwin's time, or immediately after, captured that spirit
nearly as well as pianist Oscar Levant. Today, Kevin Cole stands as the
pre-eminent interpreter of Gershwin's works at the piano, revivifying Gershwin's
crisp-and-crackling style better than anyone.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>"I see Gershwin through my eyes," says Glazier, who takes a rather
different approach.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>"I'm a trained classical concert pianist.... I interpret it in a romantic
way. I'll never claim to be the definitive Gershwin pianist. I will never claim
to replicate his style. I never claim any of that.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>"I just have the way that I feel about it, and I feel it to be very
romantic.... I would rather play lyrically than virtuosically."</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>How convincing Glazier will be with that approach remains to be heard, but
his knowledge of the subject is beyond question, and he'll share that during
"The Gershwin Experience" in the form of historical stories, rare video clips
and musical collaborations with vocalists Michael Andrew and Michelle Knight and
a trio.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Gershwin's story, of course, ends in tragedy, the genius dead at age 38 of
a brain tumor. It's impossible to gauge or comprehend how much music was lost
with this disastrous ending, but considering that Gershwin had built to a
creative high point with "Porgy," he easily might have gone on to achieve still
greater feats.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>"He was getting better and better as a serious composer," says Glazier. "He
wanted to be mentioned in the same breath as a Prokofiev or Ravel."</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>For many of us, he already is.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Richard Glazier's "Rhapsody and Rhythm: The Gershwin Experience," will play
at 8:30 p.m. Saturday at the Ravinia Festival's Martin Theatre, near Lake Cook
and Green Bay roads, Highland Park; $50 reserved; $10 lawn; 847-266-5100
or <A href="http://www.ravinia.org -30/">http://www.ravinia.org
-30/</A>-</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000"><BR><BR>Bob
Ringwald piano, Solo, Duo, Trio, Quartet, Quintet <BR>Fulton Street Jazz Band
(Dixieland/Swing)<BR>916/ 806-9551<BR>Amateur (ham) Radio Station
K6YBV<BR><BR>Walking can add minutes to your life. This enables you at 85 years
old <BR>to spend an additional 5 months in a nursing home at $7000 per
month...<BR></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>