RE: Tilson Thomas and Gershwin

[Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky <reyzl...>]

Lori,

This story seems to have gotten a bit confused.   

The person who wanted Gershwin to write music for the Yiddish Theater was 
Sholem Secunda, the musical director of a particular Yiddish theater (sorry I 
don't remember its name now.)   Gershwin was very young and unknown at the 
time, but older than 14 or 15.   When Gershwin told Secunda that he couldn't 
read or write music, Secunda didn't trust Gershwin to be able to compose a show 
and then relate to the musicians what was in his head.  (Writing down the notes 
became his brother's job, I think, but George didn't bring his brother to that 
interview.)  The problem was, as Secunda himself wrote later, that Secunda 
could never imagine that someone could be so talented to compose a whole 
theater show without any musical education.  Thomashefsky may have been slated 
to be in that show, but he was not the one to concern himself with finding a 
composer.   Secunda's presumption was a fair presumption, but who could imagine 
the rare, extraordinary talent of Gershwin.   This has all been recounted in 
Secunda's serialized biography in the Yiddish Forverts and later in his 
daughter-in-law's, Victoria Secunda's, biography of his life.


Reyzl


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From:  MaxwellSt (at) aol(dot)com[SMTP:MaxwellSt (at) aol(dot)com]
Sent:  Saturday, September 26, 1998 11:31 AM
To:  World music from a Jewish slant.
Subject:  Tilson Thomas and Gershwin

I just came across this interesting tidbit in an article about a concert
conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas dedicated to George Gershwin:

"The conductor's grandfather, Boris Thomashefsky, wanted Gershwin to write
music for the Yiddish theater.

`He was 14 or 15 and at that point he didn't write music that well,' says the
conductor. `The collaboration didn't work out. What would have been a great
thing for the Yiddish theater turned out to be a great thing for the American
musical theater.'

While Tilson Thomas' uncles were involved in Yiddish theater, his father
worked in Orson Welles' Mercury Theater in New York City then moved to Los
Angeles and worked in film and television."