George Gershwin September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937

George Gershwin was born Jacob Gershowitz at birth in Brooklyn, New York on September 26, He was the second of four children. To Rosa Bruskin and Morris (Moishe) Gershowitz. He was American composer and pianists. He wrote most of his vocal and theatrical works.

George changed the spelling of the family name to 'Gershwin' after he became a professional musician.

Gershwin tried various piano teachers for two years, and then was introduced to Charles Hambitzer by Jack Miller. Until Hambitzer's death in 1918, he acted as Gershwin's mentor. Hambitzer taught Gershwin conventional piano technique, introduced him to music of the European classical tradition, and encouraged him to attend orchestra concerts

In 1924, Gershwin composed his first major classical work. Gershwin stayed in Paris for a short period of time during which he applied to study composition with the famous instructor Nadia Boulanger.

Gershwin was influenced by French composers of the early twentieth century. A man named Maurice Ravel was impressed with Gershwin's abilities, commenting, "Personally I find jazz most interesting: the rhythms, the way the melodies are handled, the melodies themselves. I have heard of George Gershwin's works and I find them intriguing.“ Gershwin asked to study with Ravel. When Ravel heard how much Gershwin earned, Ravel replied with words to the effect of, "You should give me lessons.” **George Gershwin – Blue arrow Maurice Ravel – Red Arrow**

Early in his career Gershwin made dozens of player piano roll recordings. Gershwin made a number of solo piano recordings of tunes from his musicals. Gershwin appeared on several radio programs. In 1934, in an effort to earn money to finance his planned folk opera, Gershwin hosted his own radio program titled Music by Gershwin. In 1975, Columbia Records released an album featuring Gershwin's piano rolls of the Rhapsody In Blue, accompanied by the Columbia Jazz Band playing the original jazz-band accompaniment, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas.

Early in 1937, Gershwin began to complain of blinding headaches and a recurring impression that he was smelling burned rubber. Doctors discovered he had developed a type of cystic malignant brain tumor know as glioblastoma mutiforme. Some tried to say that this brain tumor came from a blow to the head by a gold ball, but the case is still unknown.

The surgeon's description of Gershwin's tumor as a right temporal lobe cyst with a mural nodule is much more consistent with a pilocytic astroytoma, a very low grade of brain tumor. Gershwin died at age 39.