Accessibility links
George Gershwin George Gershwin artist page: interviews, features and/or performances archived at NPR Music

George Gershwin

White Singers In Hungary Claim To Be African-American, For An Opera

Performers rehearse in January 2018 for the controversial Hungarian State Opera production of George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess. Attila Kisbenedek/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Attila Kisbenedek/AFP/Getty Images

Music News

White Singers In Hungary Claim To Be African-American, For An Opera

The Gershwin estate stipulates that Porgy and Bess should be performed by an all-black cast. The Hungarian State Opera in Budapest reportedly asked its mostly white cast to say that they are black.

Has 'An American In Paris' Been Honking Up The Wrong Key?

George Gershwin's beloved An American In Paris features the sounds of taxi horns — but a musicologist argues we've been using the wrong ones. Creative Commons hide caption

toggle caption
Creative Commons

Deceptive Cadence

Has 'An American In Paris' Been Honking Up The Wrong Key?

The composition is so popular that old-timey taxi horns Gershwin called for are rented by orchestras all over the country. But a musicologist says they've been using the wrong ones.

Has 'An American In Paris' Been Honking Up The Wrong Key?

Listen · 3:57
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/468745422/468751796" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
When Pop Broke Up With Jazz

Frank Sinatra captured by photographer William "PoPsie" Randolph during a 1943 concert. Author Ben Yagoda points to Sinatra as one of the interpreters who helped revive the Great American Songbook. William "PoPsie" Randolph/Courtesy of Riverhead hide caption

toggle caption
William "PoPsie" Randolph/Courtesy of Riverhead

The Week's Best Stories From NPR Books

When Pop Broke Up With Jazz

For the first half of the 20th century, Tin Pan Alley songwriters like Irving Berlin and the Gershwins dominated pop music. By the the 1950s, tastes had changed, and the music changed with them.

When Pop Broke Up With Jazz

Listen · 8:01
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/379086600/379419947" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Marin Alsop's Shared Musical Roots

Marin Alsop on Music

Marin Alsop's Shared Musical Roots

The Baltimore Symphony conductor chooses a season of music built on the belief that understanding where we come from, and celebrating diversity, can create a sense of continuity, history and belonging — not to mention some great concerts.

Hear Marin Alsop and Scott Simon Discuss Gershwin On 'Weekend Edition Saturday'

Listen · 9:46
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/120311185/120416116" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Studio Sessions

Rupa and the April Fishes: Multicultural Music

WNYC Radio

Rupa Marya was born to Indian parents in San Francisco and raised in the U.S., India, and the South of France. Now she sings in French, Spanish, English, and Hindi while maintaining a career as a physician.

Listen Now

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/89695578/89697167" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Review

Music Reviews

The Sweet Sound of Ruby Elzy

Fresh Air

New tracks from 1930s Broadway and radio star Ruby Elzy have been released in a CD called Ruby Elzy in Song: Rare Recordings (1935-1942). Elzy's vocal talents brought her wide acclaim until her tragic death at the age of 35.

The Sweet Sound of Ruby Elzy

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/11510015/11510018" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Music Interviews

Patti Austin, Singing Gershwin's Praises

Songstress Patti Austin's newest CD, Avant-Gershwin, allows her to cover the classic and sometimes controversial music of legendary composer George Gershwin. Austin talks about her music with Tony Cox.

Patti Austin, Singing Gershwin's Praises

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/8991041/8991044" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Music Interviews

Patti Austin Spins New Stories from Old Classics

Patti Austin is best known as an R&B singer. But on her new album, she reinterprets the American standards of George Gershwin — including the controversial song "Swanee," made famous — and infamous — by Al Jolson.

Patti Austin Spins New Stories from Old Classics

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/7732715/7798617" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Music Interviews

Looking Beyond Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue'

George Gershwin's "Second Rhapsody" isn't nearly as well known as "Rhapsody in Blue," or "An American in Paris." But music professor Howard Pollack thinks it's one of Gershwin's most complex, interesting works.

Looking Beyond Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue'

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/6931523/6931526" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Music Interviews

70 Years of Gershwin's 'Porgy and Bess'

On this day in 1935, Porgy and Bess, George Gershwin's opera about black life in the South Carolina town of Charleston at the turn of the century, made its Broadway debut. Karen Grigsby Bates offers an appreciation.

70 Years of Gershwin's 'Porgy and Bess'

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/4951238/4951259" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Browse archive or search npr.org