A little known historical fact about Gershwin's "Rhapsody" - even among professional musicians - is that the piece was originally written for jazz band. The work, premiered by Paul Whiteman's Jazz Orchestra in New York City in 1924, employs standard jazz band instrumentation, and adds violins, French horns, oboe, banjo, tuba, and orchestral percussion.
"Every effort has been made to recreate the sound of the original performance," said music teacher Brayer Teague. "We rented reproductions of the original Gershwin manuscripts from the holding library in New York and have rehearsed from them so that our students could more fully appreciate Gershwin's compositional process in creating this master-work."
Junior Marie Kirkegaard will perform the solo piano part originally performed by Gershwin himself.
The concert begins at 7:00 PM in the Clarence Johnson Auditorium. Admission is free, and the concert is open to the public.
