Gershwin, Had a long quest to find a teacher (partly to validate himself) and was turned down by many Ravel, Boulanger (Ravel wrote the recommendation to her for Gershwin), Varese, Ibert and Stravinsky. He was doing very well when he approached everyone on the above mentioned list for lessons. In fact, the premier of Rhapsody in Blue and already occurred as he was making the 'rounds" looking for a teacher. In double checking Stravinsky was the one that made the money comment and the quote back from Gershwin was "100K maybe as much as 200K last year". According to the Pollack biography Stravinsky did not have the same aesthetic as Gershwin and was looking for a reason to say no.
Just as a side note Wikipedia states that "American in Paris" was a NY Philharmonic commission and in fact they did the premier but no one did the commission. Wikipedia is not always a good source Debbie Schmidt Tisch Center for the Arts _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at http://music2.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
