Ira Gershwin ( December 6, 1896 – August 17, 1983 ) was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs of the 20th century.

He collaborated with many of the leading librettists and lyricists of his era, including George Grossmith Jr., Guy Bolton, P. G. Wodehouse, Otto Harbach, Oscar Hammerstein II, Dorothy Fields, Johnny Mercer, Ira Gershwin and E. Y. Harburg.

He collaborated as lyricist or librettist with Oscar Hammerstein II, Jerome Kern, Louis Hirsch, Herbert Stothart, Vincent Youmans, George Gershwin, and Sigmund Romberg.

Whiteman became interested in featuring such an extended composition by Gershwin in the concert after he had collaborated with Gershwin in the Scandals of 1922, impressed by the original performance of the one-act opera Blue Monday, which was nevertheless a commercial failure.

Gershwin introduced Harburg to Jay Gorney, who collaborated with him on songs for an Earl Carroll Broadway review ( Earl Carroll's Sketchbook ): the show was successful and Harburg was engaged as lyricist for a series of successful revues, including Americana in 1932, for which he wrote the lyrics of Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

In 1998, Morcheeba collaborated with Hubert Laws to record for the Red Hot Organization's compilation album Red Hot + Rhapsody, a tribute to George Gershwin, which raised money for various charities devoted to increasing AIDS awareness and fighting the disease.

He collaborated on some of his most famous songs with lyricists Al Dubin, Billy Rose, Mack Gordon, Leo Robin, Ira Gershwin and Johnny Mercer.

He also collaborated with some of the finest composers including, Grace LeBoy Kahn ( his wife ), Richard A. Whiting, Buddy DeSylva, Al Jolson, Raymond Egan, Ted Fio Rito, Ernie Erdman, Neil Moret, Vincent Youmans, George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, Harry Akst, Harry M. Woods, Edward Eliscu, Victor Schertzinger, Arthur Johnston, Bronislaw Kaper, Jerome Kern, Walter Jurmann, Sigmund Romberg and Harry Warren, though his primary collaborator was Walter Donaldson.

He collaborated with lyricist Ira Gershwin on the score for Two Little Girls in Blue, which won wide acclaim.

She collaborated in productions of groundbreaking works, directing her choir and working with Virgil Thomson and Gertrude Stein on Four Saints in Three Acts ( 1933 ), and serving as musical director with George Gershwin on his innovative opera Porgy and Bess ( 1935 ).

After Gershwin's death in 1937, his brother Ira Gershwin collaborated with Swift to complete and arrange some of his unpublished works.

Stillman collaborated with a number of composers: Fred Ahlert, Robert Allen, Percy Faith, George Gershwin, Ernesto Lecuona, Paul McGrane, Kay Swift, and Arthur Schwartz.

Gershwin composed the piece on commission from the New York Philharmonic.

Gershwin brought back some Parisian taxi horns for the New York premiere of the composition, which took place on December 13, 1928 in Carnegie Hall, with Walter Damrosch conducting the New York Symphony.

This did not set Gershwin back, as his real intent abroad was to complete a new work based on Paris and perhaps a second rhapsody for piano and orchestra.

Gershwin based An American in Paris on a melodic fragment called " Very Parisienne ", written in 1926 on his first visit to Paris as a gift to his hosts, Robert and Mabel Schirmer.

Gershwin was on hand to " supervise " the recording ; however, Shilkret was reported to be in charge and eventually asked the composer to leave the recording studio.

The radio broadcast of the September 8, 1937 Hollywood Bowl George Gershwin Memorial Concert, in which An American in Paris, also conducted by Shilkret, was second on the program, was recorded and was released in 1998 in a two-CD set.

In 1987, Ira's widow, Leonore Gershwin, established the Ira Gershwin Literacy Center at University Settlement, a century-old institution at 185 Eldridge Street on the Lower East Side, New York City.

The second Gershwin Prize for Popular Song was awarded to Stevie Wonder by U. S. President Barack Obama on February 25, 2009.

* September 7 – CBS broadcasts a two-and-a-half hour memorial concert nationwide on radio in memory of George Gershwin, live from the Hollywood Bowl.

In the same year, the Cotton Club Orchestra appeared on stage for several months in Florenz Ziegfeld's Show Girl, along with vaudeville stars Jimmy Durante, Eddie Foy, Jr., Al Jolson, Ruby Keeler, and with music and lyrics by George Gershwin and Gus Kahn.

George and Ira Gershwin, along with DuBose Heyward, based the libretto of their opera version, Porgy and Bess, not on the original novel, but on the play.

Named in honor of George and Ira Gershwin, this newly created award recognizes the profound and positive effect of popular music on the world ’ s culture.

From 1997 to 2010, the Tony Awards ceremony was held at Radio City Music Hall in New York City in June and broadcast live on CBS television, except in 1999, when it was held at the Gershwin Theatre.

The Red Shoes opened on 16 December 1993 at the Gershwin Theatre, with Steve Barton playing Boris Lermontov, Margaret Illmann playing Victoria Page, and Hugh Panaro playing Julian Craster.

Within two weeks of opening in Top Speed, Rogers was chosen to star on Broadway in Girl Crazy by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin, the musical play widely considered to have made stars of both her and Ethel Merman.

Living for many years in Beverly Hills, California, in the house formerly owned by George and Ira Gershwin, in 1980, she purchased a second home on Riverside Drive in Augusta, Kentucky, near Maysville, her childhood hometown.

The resulting album, Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin, was released on August 17, 2010 on Disney's Pearl label.

Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin achieved Number 1 position on the Billboard Jazz Chart, and had sold 53, 000 copies by August 2011.

Popular songwriters were also featured on radio, such as George Gershwin, who in addition to appearing as a guest, also had his own program in 1934.

Gershwin began his work on January 7 as dated on the original manuscript for two pianos.

Two audio recordings exist of Gershwin performing an abridged version of the work with Whiteman's orchestra: an acoustic recording made June 10, 1924, released on two sides of Victor 55225 and running 8: 59 ( this recording includes the original clarinetist, Ross Gorman, playing the glissando ) and an electrical recording made April 21, 1927, released on both sides of Victor 35822 and running 9: 01 ( about half the length of the complete work ).

* Part 1 of the original acoustic recording of Rhapsody in Blue performed by George Gershwin and Paul Whiteman in 1924 on Internet Archive

* Part 2 of the original acoustic recording of Rhapsody in Blue performed by George Gershwin and Paul Whiteman in 1924 on Internet Archive

MacGregor's performances of numerous short pieces by Gershwin alongside the composer's " Piano Concerto in F " and the original jazz band version of " Rhapsody In Blue.

The ten programmes titled The Papers used the Gershwin Piano Concerto in F as opening and closing music ; when it reverted to the original title, it was replaced again by the Arnold work, which is now being used for the revived programme on radio.

The musical has many of the film's original songs, and also incorporates other Gershwin songs, such as " They All Laughed ", " Let's Call the Whole Thing Off ", and " Love Walked In ".

The original film's vocal score was embellished with additional tunes by Comden, Green, and Roger Edens, Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh, George and Ira Gershwin, Johnny Mercer and Richard Whiting, and Cole Porter.

Ethel Merman sang the song in the original Broadway production and Broadway lore holds that George Gershwin, after seeing her opening reviews, warned her never to take a singing lesson.

* Blue Monday ( opera ), the original name of a George Gershwin one-act " jazz opera ", also known as 135th Street

Blue Monday ( Opera à la Afro-American ) was the original name of a one-act " jazz opera " by George Gershwin, renamed 135th Street during a later production.

Blue Monday was one of Gershwin's premature works and lacks the musical and dramatic sophistication of his later musicals and Porgy and Bess, but jazz conductor Paul Whiteman, who conducted the original performance of the piece in 1922, was so impressed by it that he asked Gershwin to compose a symphonic jazz piece for Whiteman to conduct at a concert Whiteman was planning.

Steven Richman conducted the Harmonie Ensemble / New York in the complete original Paul Whiteman Orchestra version of Grand Canyon Suite, coupled with the original Mississippi Suite on Bridge Records in 2006, entitled " Symphonic Jazz: Grofe and Gershwin ".

* Porgy and Bess ( Decca 2006 ), the first recording of the score as Gershwin arranged it for the original 1935 Broadway production ( incorporating all of Gershwin's opening night cuts ).

Besides Reiner's request that the piano ( which Gershwin used for texture, not for soloing ) be eliminated, the actual orchestration in most passages is very closely based on Gershwin's original scoring.

2008 saw the release of “ World Goes Round ” by the Mike Miller Quartet featuring Walt Fowler, Albert Wing, Chad Wackerman, and Jimmy Johnson, which includes original compositions as well as creative takes on Gershwin and Perez Prado.