Written in 1924 at the behest of bandleader Paul Whiteman, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue has become an iconic part of American music.  Along with the sounds of Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man and Bernstein’s West Side Story, the opening clarinet glissando of Rhapsody in Blue are synonymous with an American voice in music.  This lecture will discuss the “fascinating rhythm” and memorable melody that make the work so unforgettable.  We will discover Pauld Whiteman’s campaign to persuade Gershwin to write a piece combining jazz and classical music elements, the extraordinary feat of composing the piece in only five weeks, and how the initial performance by Gershwin and Whiteman established Gershwin’s reputation as a great American composer.  Finally, we will look at the many arrangements and fine performances that keep the work in the public’s consciousness today.  

Ann Sears is Professor of Music at Wheaton College (Massachusetts) where she teaches piano and music history.   She holds degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music, Arizona State University, and from The Catholic University of America.  Her principal teachers were Victor Rosenbaum, Thomas Mastroianni, and Linda Cutting.  She has presented papers and lecture-recitals at many national music association meetings and performed extensively as a solo and collaborative pianist in the United States and Europe. She most recently appeared at the Oxford Lieder Festival in England with soprano Louise Toppin and baritone Alan Williams, at St. Saviour’s Concert Series in Bar Harbor, Maine, and at liveARTS in Franklin, Massachusetts with Nicholas Kitchen, violin.  Her co-authored critical edition of Harry T. Burleigh was published in November, 2023.  She is currently president of the Chaminade Music Club in Attleboro, MA, president of the board of the Norton Institute for Continuing Education, and artistic director of the liveARTS concert series in Franklin, MA.