Schedule:

Wednesday January 24, 2024

9:30 a.m - 11:30 a.m: Shall We Dance at Sheffer Recital Hall, The Shedd Institute
Perhaps the Gershwin's greatest film effort, featuring the unparalleled team of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in if not their most perfect dance sequences, some of their most memorable! Ballet star Pete "Petrov" Peters (Astaire, naturally!) arranges to cross the Atlantic aboard the same ship as the dancer he's fallen for but barely knows, musical star Linda Keene (Rogers). By the time the ocean liner reaches New York, a little white lie and their obvious growing affection for each other has churned through the New York rumor mill and turned into a hot gossip item: that the two celebrities are secretly married! Keene's beau back home is none too happy, and the star-crossed stars make a valiant effort to distance themselves from each other only to be thrown together by Petrov's scheming publicity agents. Memorable numbers include "Slap That Bass", "Walking the Dog", "They All Laughed", "You Say Potato", and "They Can't Take That Away From Me".

7:30 p.m - 9:15 p.m: Love Walked In - 1927-38 at Jaqua Concert Hall, The Shedd Institute
After their breakthrough, tranformative hit, Lady, Be Good! in 1924, George and Ira Gershwin continued with a series of musical comedies, including Tip-Toes, Oh, Kay!, Funny Face, Rosalie and Treasure Girl before delivering the fabulous 1930 hit Girl Crazy, a bright and lively musical comedy written by Guy Bolton and John McGowan starring Ginger Rogers, introducing Ethel Merman and filled with hits like "I Got Rhythm", "Embraceable You" and "Bidin' My Time". This was followed by a few more passable musical comedies, George's continued forays into classical music, their political satire trilogy Strike Up The Band, Of Thee I Sing, and Let 'Em Eat Cake…And then George took on a folk opera with Dubose Heyward called Porgy and Bess on which Ira helped a bit, but mostly joined up with Yip Harbug and Harold Arlen on the revue Life Begins at 8:40.

When Porgy and Bess flopped, George and Ira finally followed their colleagues to Hollywood where, as George put it, they were intent "to write hits!" Three musical films resulted: the Astaire-Rogers masterpiece Shall We Dance (1937), A Damsel In Distress (1937), and The Goldwyn Follies (1938). On July 11, 1937, four months before A Damsel In Distress was released, George fell dead of a brain tumor.

Thursday January 25, 2024

9:30 a.m - 11:30 a.m: Porgy And Bess at Sheffer Recital Hall, The Shedd Institute
George Gershwin and DuBose Heyward's magnificent 1935 folk opera Porgy And Bess has had a challenging production history. The original production, under the direction of Rouben Mamoulian was a critical success but a box office failure. Samuel Goldwyn's 1959 film adaptation, which was directed by Otto Preminger and starred Sidney Poitier, Dorothea Dandridge and Sammy Davis, Jr., faired even worse: While it enjoyed a modicum of success, reviews were mixed, the Gershwin Estate withdrew its support, and the film was withdrawn from ciculation. It is considered a "lost film", existing today only in bootleg copies. There is plenty to criticize about the film; most notably, the singing of both Poitier's and Dandridge was dubbed, the recitative was converted to spoken dialog, some underscoring by Andre Previn was introduced, and the songs and character of Sportin' Life was rendered, to the minds of some critics, unfortunately. But overall Goldwyn's commitment to present a film version that adhered musically close to the original was achieved. It is worth a viewing, even in its low-quality state.

1:30 p.m - 3:00 p.m: Sing Along at Sheffer Recital Hall, The Shedd Institute
The Festival Community Sing-Alongs are a great way to get into the music! This winter, there is 1 Sing Along session, as usual in Sheffer Recital Hall, open to all-comers. Amy Adams leads, with focus this winter, obviously, on the songs of George and Ira Gershwin! (75 minutes)

7:30 p.m - 9:15 p.m: I Got Rhythm: Gershwin Standard at Jaqua Concert Hall, The Shedd Institute
Chuck Redd and his Festival jazz unit present a fine selection of Gershwin classics both as they originally appeared and as they were later interpreted by jazz musicians. Look for "Somebody Loves Me", "Fascinating Rhythm", "Embraceable You"/Quasimodo (Charlie Parker), "I Got Rhythm"/ Squatty Roo (Johnny Hodges), "The Man I Love", "Oh, Lady Be Good"/Hackensack (Thelonious Monk), "Liza" (Leo Reisman version 1929, Goodman Quartet version 1937) DC, "Gone, Gone, Gone"/Gone (Gil Evans/Miles Davis), "Nice Work if You Can Get It", An American In Paris/Parisian Thoroughfare (Bud Powell), "A Foggy Day", and more!

Friday January 26, 2024

9:30 a.m - 11:30 a.m: A Damsel In Distress at Sheffer Recital Hall, The Shedd Institute
Lady Alyce Marshmorton (Joan Fontaine) must marry soon, and the staff of Tottney Castle have laid bets on who she'll choose, with young Albert wagering on "Mr. X." After Alyce goes to London to meet her secret beau, bumping into dancer Jerry Halliday (Fred Astaire), instead, she is restricted to the castle to curb her scandalous behavior. Albert then summons Jerry to Alyce's aid in order to "protect his investment." Gracie Allen and George Burns play Astaire's managers to great effect with some very funny dance sequences to the Gershwin's music. Musical highlights include Allen's "Stiff Upper Lip" and Astaire's "Nice Work If You Can Get It" and "Foggy Day In London Town".

1:30 p.m - 3:15 p.m: Love Walked In - 1927-38 at Jaqua Concert Hall, The Shedd Institute
After their breakthrough, tranformative hit, Lady, Be Good! in 1924, George and Ira Gershwin continued with a series of musical comedies, including Tip-Toes, Oh, Kay!, Funny Face, Rosalie and Treasure Girl before delivering the fabulous 1930 hit Girl Crazy, a bright and lively musical comedy written by Guy Bolton and John McGowan starring Ginger Rogers, introducing Ethel Merman and filled with hits like "I Got Rhythm", "Embraceable You" and "Bidin' My Time". This was followed by a few more passable musical comedies, George's continued forays into classical music, their political satire trilogy Strike Up The Band, Of Thee I Sing, and Let 'Em Eat Cake…And then George took on a folk opera with Dubose Heyward called Porgy and Bess on which Ira helped a bit, but mostly joined up with Yip Harbug and Harold Arlen on the revue Life Begins at 8:40.

When Porgy and Bess flopped, George and Ira finally followed their colleagues to Hollywood where, as George put it, they were intent "to write hits!" Three musical films resulted: the Astaire-Rogers masterpiece Shall We Dance (1937), A Damsel In Distress (1937), and The Goldwyn Follies (1938). On July 11, 1937, four months before A Damsel In Distress was released, George fell dead of a brain tumor.

7:30 p.m - 9:15 p.m: They All Laughed: Ira Gershwin, 1921-54 at Jaqua Concert Hall, The Shedd Institute
The lyricists who formulated the American Songbook style in the 1920s and '30s--Irving Berlin, Dorothy Fields, Ira Gershwin, Lorenz Hart, Cole Porter--invented a new native poetry drawn from a combination of sophisticated wordplay and unstudied, everyday parlance. Of these Ira Gershwin (1896-1983) was one of its greatest masters. He described his lyrics as “simple, colloquial, rhymed conversational lines”. These “simple” lines magically draw the listener in with their high level of craftsmanship and extreme wit.

George and Ira Gershwin's songwriting collaboration resulted in a body of work that included a seemingly endless string of hit musicals and songs cut short only by George's untimely death in 1937. Crushed by George’s untimely death, Ira did no writing for three years. But he then began a second career writing with many different composers including Vincent Youmans, Kurt Weill, Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, Aaron Copland, Arthur Schwartz, Harry Warren, Kay Swift and Burton Lane and proved anew that he was one of the great songwriters.

Saturday January 27, 2024

9:30 a.m - 11:30 a.m: Girl Crazy at Sheffer Recital Hall, The Shedd Institute
This 1943 film version of the Gershwin's 1930 smash hit is much closer to the original musical than RKO's 1932 effort and has the added attraction of the irresistible team of Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. A wealthy Manhattanite, fed up with his son's romantic escapades, ships the "girl crazy" budding playboy (Rooney) to a men's-only southwestern university. There, the would-be Romeo falls for the pretty but uninterested dean's granddaughter Ginger (renamed from the original in honor of Ginger Rogers, the part's original player) and saves the school from financial ruin. This eighth pairing of Rooney and Garland includes many classic Gershwin songs such as "I Got Rhythm," "Could You Use Me", "Treat Me Rough", "Fascinating Rhythm," "I'm Bidin' My Time", and "Embraceable You.".

1:30 p.m2:45 p.m: They All Laughed: Ira Gershwin, 1921-54 at Jaqua Concert Hall, The Shedd Institute
The lyricists who formulated the American Songbook style in the 1920s and '30s--Irving Berlin, Dorothy Fields, Ira Gershwin, Lorenz Hart, Cole Porter--invented a new native poetry drawn from a combination of sophisticated wordplay and unstudied, everyday parlance. Of these Ira Gershwin (1896-1983) was one of its greatest masters. He described his lyrics as “simple, colloquial, rhymed conversational lines”. These “simple” lines magically draw the listener in with their high level of craftsmanship and extreme wit.

George and Ira Gershwin's songwriting collaboration resulted in a body of work that included a seemingly endless string of hit musicals and songs cut short only by George's untimely death in 1937. Crushed by George’s untimely death, Ira did no writing for three years. But he then began a second career writing with many different composers including Vincent Youmans, Kurt Weill, Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, Aaron Copland, Arthur Schwartz, Harry Warren, Kay Swift and Burton Lane and proved anew that he was one of the great songwriters.

7:30 p.m - 9:30 p.m: Rhapsody In Blue- 1916-26 at Jaqua Concert Hall, The Shedd Institute
On February 12, 1924 at Aeolian Hall on 42nd Street, Paul Whiteman and his Palais Royal Orchestra presented An Experiment in Modern Music. Whiteman mounted the concert to demonstrate to the attendant New York musical establishment (which included the likes of John Phillip Sousa and Sergei Rachmaninoff) how "to make a lady out of jazz", as he put it at the time, by showing how the apparently horribly discordant new music (which he represented through the squawks, wild rhythms and general hokum of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band's 1917 "Livery Stable Blues") contained important elements of what he termed "the true form of jazz" that, for all its flaws, could at the very least be "a stepping stone which will make it very simple for the masses to understand, and therefore, enjoy symphony and opera." The program opened with the ODJB "abomination" and concluded with Elgar's Pomp And Circumstance…with a progression of musical refinements, culminating with the ultimate stepping stone: a new piece by the young composer George Gershwin, the brilliant tone poem Rhapsody in Blue.

This evening, for our final concert of Oregon Festival of American Music 2024 Winter –only 2 weeks shy of the 100th anniversary of that premier– we are pleased to present the original Paul Whiteman jazz orchestra version of Rhapsody In Blue conducted by and featuring on piano Shedd regular and acclaimed Gershwin interpreter Ted Rosenthal.

To open the evening, Chuck Redd and company eschew Paul Whiteman's interesting but awkward 1924 educational program and welcome another Shedd piano regular Randy Porter and vocalists Lynnea Barry, Siri Vik and Bill Hulings for an intriguing and scintillating survey of the best of George and Ira Gershwin's early 1920s work…from "Rialto Ripples" (1917) to "Someone To Watch Over Me" (1926).

Sunday January 28, 2024

4:00 p.m - 7:30 p.m: 'S Wonderful: The 2024 Winter Jazz Party at Jaqua Concert Hall, The Shedd Institute
Chuck Redd hosts as the OFAM 2024 Winter jazz team offer up their usual 3 1/2 hours of great jazz standards and songbook-based improv, with the emphasis the year being, of course, the music of George and Ira Gershwin.

Date: January 24 - 28, 2024

Location: Various Venues in Eugene, OR 97401

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