The Open­ing Night Gala on Septem­ber 27, fea­tures key­board le­gend Herbie Han­cock who joins Gust­avo Du­damel and the Los Angeles Phil­har­mon­ic for a high-spir­ited cel­eb­ra­tion of quint­es­sen­tial Amer­ic­an com­poser George Ger­sh­win. LA Phil was Ger­sh­win’s ho­met­own or­ches­tra when he died in 1937, and its his­tory with the com­poser is equaled only by the New York Phil­har­mon­ic.

The all-Ger­sh­win con­cert fea­tured some of the com­poser’s best-loved or­ches­tral pieces: Cuban Over­ture, Amer­ic­an in Par­is, fol­lowed by Herbie Han­cock’s im­pro­visa­tion of Em­brace­able You and Someone to Watch Over Me. The con­cert closed with Rhaps­ody in Blue, which brought the audi­ence to their feet for a rous­ing stand­ing ova­tion. Fi­nal bows were ac­com­pan­ied by a con­fetti drop of blue and sil­ver mylar.

Ger­sh­win is the Jazz Age per­son­i­fied. He got his start writ­ing songs for "Tin Pan Al­ley," the des­ig­na­tion for New York’s pub­lish­ers of pop­u­lar songs. With works like Rhaps­ody in Blue, Ger­sh­win brought jazz in­to the con­cert hall. Com­bin­ing his knack for pop­u­lar songs, his mas­tery of jazz, and his skill with large-scale com­pos­i­tion in a last­ing monu­ment to one of the greatest voices in Amer­ic­an mu­sic.

George Gershwin
Cuban Over­ture
An Amer­ic­an in Par­is
Rhaps­ody in Blue

Los Angeles Phil­har­mon­ic
Gust­avo Du­damel, con­duct­or
Herbie Han­cock, pi­ano