CARSON CITY – When the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra held its very first concert fifty years ago, it played the music of the iconic American composer George Gershwin.
As part of its Reno Philharmonic Exhibition Lecture Series, the Nevada Historical Society will welcome guest lecturers Dr. Mark Clague and Timothy Freeze, both musicologists, who take on the topic, “Gershwin’s Legacy.”
Nevada Histoircal Society
The event is Friday, Sept. 28 at 5:15 p.m. at the Nevada Historical Society, 1650 N. Virginia St., Reno. Admission is $5 for adults, free for NHS members and children 17 and younger.
The lecture is the first in a series that coincides with the major exhibit at the Historical Society celebrating the Reno Philharmonic’s 50th anniversary. “The Biggest Little Orchestra in the World: 50 Years of the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra,” will be in place through March 2, 2019.
The exhibition is a collaboration between the Nevada Historical Society, the Reno Philharmonic and Nevada Humanities.
The lecture will focus on Gershwin’s legacy and also explore Maurice Ravel’s influence on Gershwin and while Ravel refused him as a student. Gershwin (1898-1937) is widely considered one of America’s great composers. Some of his best-loved works include the orchestral compositions “Rhapsody in Blue” and “American In Paris.” He and his brother, Ira also composed the contemporary opera “Porgy and Bess.”
Timothy D. Freeze is editor of the forthcoming volumes of George Gershwin’s Concerto in F and “I Got Rhythm” Variations for the “George and Ira Gershwin Critical Edition.” His research on Gershwin’s works for piano and orchestra will appear in the “Cambridge Companion to George Gershwin.” He has also published essays on Gustav Mahler, Aaron Copland, and Viennese operetta for Cambridge, Oxford, and Böhlau presses.
Clague is a visiting professor at the College of Wooster in Ohio, where he teaches undergraduate courses on music and advises first-year students. Previously, he served on the faculties of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University and IES Abroad in Vienna, Austria. He holds a Ph.D. in historical musicology from the University of Michigan and has held research fellowships from the Berlin Program for Advanced German European Studies, the German Academic Exchange Service, and the Fulbright Program.
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