The last piano George Gershwin owned and performed on – a Steinway Model A, made in 1933 and delivered to Gershwin in January, 1934 – will make its 21st-century public debut in a free concert at the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theater & Dance, in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Oct. 10, the university announced.
The piano was donated to the university in 2013 by Marc Gershwin, the composer’s nephew, as part of a relationship between the Gershwin family and the university, which is in the early stages of preparing the George and Ira Gershwin Critical Edition. The edition, announced last year, will be the first complete, scholarly edition of the Gershwin brothers’ work. Work on it is expected to take several decades, during which the family has promised the university’s musicologists unfettered access to the brothers’ archives.
“As plans for the U-M Gershwin Initiative evolved,” Marc Gershwin said in a statement, referring to the critical edition, “I realized that the University of Michigan would be the ideal home for my uncle’s Steinway. I wanted the instrument to be accessible to the students and faculty who would be preserving the legacy of George and Ira Gershwin’s music.”
The piano had seen little use since George Gershwin’s death in 1937, at 38. It remained, virtually unplayed, in the New York apartment that was originally owned by Gershwin’s mother, and was passed down through three generations to Marc Gershwin. When the piano arrived in Ann Arbor, the university engaged Patrick DeBeliso, of PianoCrafters in Plymouth, Mich., to restore the instrument to playable condition.
The surgery was extensive. The soundboard was replaced (the original had an irreparable crack), as were the strings and keyboard, and the hammer and damper mechanism – that is, most of the working parts. The piano’s exterior was cleaned but not refinished. (The original keyboard and action will be on display at the school.)
“The opportunity to perform on George Gershwin’s piano will be extraordinarily inspirational for our students and faculty,” said Christopher Kendall, the dean of the music, theater and dance school, in a statement. “We are so grateful to Marc for his generosity and to the entire Gershwin family for their vision and commitment to ensuring that the music of their remarkable forbears will be preserved.”
The concert will include classical, jazz, music theater and dance works composed by the Gershwins, in performances by the school’s students and faculty.