Jack Gibbons will perform Nov. 2 at Southeast

In 1988, Jack Gibbons was a young English classical pianist primarily concerned with the challenges of playing works by Liszt, Beethoven and Chopin. Somehow George Gershwin's music was unknown to him. Then he heard a recording of piano music played by Gershwin himself. Gibbons was astonished.

"It was so full of life," he says. "... He seemed to cover the entire keyboard when he played. He was so inventive and had such wonderful harmony."

Gibbons was hooked on Gershwin. In the beginning, he just played the American composer's music at parties. He had no idea his career was about to be consumed with the repertoire of a musician and composer Gibbons considers one of the greatest if not the greatest of the 20th century.

Now he himself is hailed as the foremost interpreter of Gershwin's music since Oscar Levant.

Gibbons will play a program of Gershwin's music at 8 p.m. Nov. 2, at Academic Auditorium. On Nov. 20, he will perform a similar program at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

Dennis Seyer, a theater professor at Southeast, heard Gibbons play during a teaching stint in England last year. Gibbons performs a weekly summer piano series every year in Oxford's Holywell Hall, a beautiful 18th century music hall.

"I happened to be sitting in the balcony, dead center," Seyer said. "I could see his hands, and I was impressed so much with his energy and passion for playing Gershwin."

Critics have described the 39-year-old Gibbons as a musician whose modest manner does not prepare the audience for the magic he conjures at the keyboard.

Talking with Gibbons afterward, Seyer learned that he'd played Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall but never in the Midwest.

"I told him, 'You need to be seen and heard in the Midwest,'" Seyer recalled.

Gibbons has recorded an award-winning series of CDs called "The Authentic George Gershwin." In a phone interview from his home near Oxford, he called his career as a Gershwin interpreter "a wonderful, big happy accident."

Like Gershwin, Gibbons is a musicologist. Gershwin never wrote down his show-tune arrangements, so Gibbons spent years transcribing the composer's music note-by-note from old 78 recordings and piano rolls. His renditions and arrangements are as faithful to Gershwin's own as possible.

From the soundtrack of the movie "Delicious" Gibbons gleaned the little known tune "Somebody from Somewhere," which will be performed here Nov. 2.

"Rhapsody in Blue" is the composition Gershwin is most famous for. It usually is "oversentimentalized" by modern pianists, Gibbons says.

"He was much more direct as a performer. He didn't do a lot of gushing."

Gershwin wrote "Rhapsody in Blue" very quickly because he had to meet a deadline. "What's amazing about it is the way it has a natural flow to it," he says. "It has so much passion."

During his concerts, Gibbons provides anecdotes that illustrate something about Gershwin.

"There are lot of myths about him," Gibbons says. "He wasn't an egocentric kind of person. He wasn't arrogant at all. He enjoyed his own talent but in a kind of innocent way."

Gershwin became famous for such popular songs as "Someone to Watch Over Me," "Embraceable You," "They Can't Take that Away from Me" and "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off," written with his lyricist brother Ira. His Broadway shows included "Lady Be Good!," "Oh, Kay!," "Funny Face," "Girl Crazy" and "Of Thee I Sing."

His concert career soared with the introduction of "Rhapsody in Blue," which was followed by Concerto in F, "An American in Paris," "Second Rhapsody" "Cuban Overture" and "Variations on I Got Rhythm."

"Porgy and Bess," his opera, was yet another foray into new territory. Gibbons considers "Porgy and Bess," which was performed at the Show Me Center earlier this year, Gershwin's masterpiece.

Gershwin collapsed and died of a brain tumor in 1937. At the time he was in Hollywood working on the score for "The Golden Follies." He was 38 years old.

Had he lived and worked through the husk of the 20th century, "His influence would have been amazing," Gibbons said. "He was becoming more of a serious composer."

Gibbons will give a public lecture demonstration at 11 a.m. Thursday at Academic Auditorium. That night he will perform at 8 p.m. at the Bootheel Youth Museum in Malden, Mo.

Gibbons will teach a piano master class at 2 p.m. Nov. 2, at Academic Auditorium. The class also is open to the public.

His performance at Academic Auditorium will begin at 8 p.m. Nov. 2.

Tickets will be available at the door. The box office will open at 7 p.m.

sblackwell@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182