Gershwin dropped out of school at the age of 15 to work as a songwriter for a music publisher.¹⁾

Gershwin never studied music in a conservatory. He did, however, take individual lessons for five years and studied music theory and piano throughout his life.²⁾

George and his brother Ira both became accomplished painters.³⁾

Porgy and Bess, Gershwin's outstanding opera, was a disappointment when it premiered in 1935.⁴⁾

Gershwin did not marry. He claimed to be “too busy,” although he enjoyed dating a lot.⁵⁾

Gershwin died at the age of 38 from a brain tumor.⁶⁾

Gershwin apparently learnt from a newspaper story in January 1924 that he was supposed to write a “jazz concerto” for a program of new American music to be delivered a month later by popular dance band leader Paul Whiteman. Gershwin composed a two-piano version at breakneck speed, which was subsequently arranged by Whiteman's arranger. Rhapsody in Blue, with Gershwin as soloist, was a triumph, and it is now regarded as a watershed moment in American music.⁷⁾

Gershwin's piano concerto, written one year after Rhapsody in Blue, took his revolutionary jazz-influenced classical style even farther. The composer premiered it with the New York Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Walter Damrosch. The conductor referred to Gershwin as “the Prince who has grabbed Cinderella [jazz] by the hand and openly declared her a princess to the astounded world, no likely to the rage of her envious sisters.”⁸⁾

In the mid-1920s, Gershwin visited Paris for a short time and applied to study composition with the renowned Nadia Boulanger - pictured - who, along with numerous other prospective professors, including Maurice Ravel, turned him down. She was concerned that his jazz-influenced style would be ruined by rigorous classical education. Gershwin penned An American in Paris while in the French capital.⁹⁾