Posts: Marcus Roberts

Exploring Rhapsody: A New Take on Gershwin with Marcus Roberts

January 16, 2024

GERSHWIN IN NEW YORK guest artist Marcus Roberts has been called “the genius of the modern piano” and has the honors to show for it—he’s been a recipient of the Helen Keller Award for Personal Achievement, Artist-in-Residence for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, commissioned composer for Chamber Music America, and Grammy nominee for his 1996 album Portraits in Blue. We talked to Marcus to learn more about his music history and what it’s like to improvise classics such as Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.

2023-24 Season, Blog, GERSHWIN IN NEW YORK, Marcus Roberts

Program Notes — GERSHWIN IN NEW YORK

January 2, 2024

Samuel Barber (1910­–1981) Symphony No. 1, in One Movement, Op. 9 (1936, rev. 1942) It must have been lonely to be Samuel Barber there for a while. Almost alone of mid-twentieth-century American composers he eschewed the era’s prevailing bleak modernism in favor of a rich musical language that emphasized melody, opulent harmonies, and traditional structures….

2023-24 Season, Barber, George Gershwin, GERSHWIN IN NEW YORK, Jason Marsalis, Marcus Roberts, Martin Jaffe, William Dawson