Lenox — Who ya gonna call when Kirill Gerstein cancels a Gershwin concerto performance on one day’s notice? That’s what the 92nd Street Y had to decide several years ago when they found themselves without a pianist for a program of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” and “Concerto in F,” to be performed back to back. Fortunately, someone had the wherewithal to call Ted Rosenthal, the pianist who will perform Gershwin’s “Rhapsody” on Saturday, April 15 at Shakespeare & Company, backed by an advanced ensemble from Kids 4 Harmony. Rosenthal survived the 92nd Street Y date and tells the harrowing story of it below.
An internationally respected jazz pianist, arranger, and composer known for his work as a soloist, bandleader, and collaborator, Rosenthal was born in Chicago in 1959 and studied music at Indiana University and The Juilliard School. He has released multiple albums as a leader, including “Images of Monk” (1994) and “The King and I” (2009), which showcases his interpretations of Thelonious Monk and Broadway classics. He has composed music for film and television, including the documentary “The First Freedom: The Fight for Religious Liberty” (2012). He is also an esteemed music educator, having taught at The Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music. He has received numerous awards, including the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition and the Great American Jazz Piano Competition.
Inspired by Venezuela’s El Sistema, a program that uses classical music as a vehicle for social change, Kids 4 Harmony is a free intensive classical music program for youth from under-resourced communities in Berkshire County established in 2011 through Berkshire Children and Families, known today as 18 Degrees. The program currently serves over 60 students ranging from elementary to high school age in Pittsfield and North Adams, providing access to classical music education, improving academic performance, developing leadership and social skills, and building a sense of community and connection for students.
Saturday’s concert will be Kids 4 Harmony’s debut performance of “Rhapsody in Blue” by their advanced strings ensemble. The lineup of musicians will include Geivens, Davis, Lisa, Kaylee, and Andrew on violin; Tyler and Ethan on viola; and Zoe and Gina on cello. Leading the ensemble will be Venezuelan conductor and violinist Jorge Soto, currently Music Director of the Sistema Side-by-Side Orchestra at Longy School of Music of Bard College. A graduate of New England Conservatory of Music, Mr. Soto is also the Principal Conductor of the New Philharmonia Orchestra and the Principal Guest Conductor of the Massachusetts Symphony. He has worked with other major orchestras, including the Boston Symphony, and with Gustavo Dudamel and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, where he was a founding member.
Ted Rosenthal’s involvement with Berkshires Jazz and Kids 4 Harmony goes back several years to his first masterclass with the group and their subsequent performance of his own chamber music arrangements at a Berkshires Jazz event.
I spoke with Rosenthal last week to learn more about the upcoming Gershwin performance and the preparations that went into it. Our conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
How did you find yourself working with Kids 4 Harmony?
Well, I’ve now worked with them twice. The first time was more of a masterclass situation several years ago, and I was very taken with the students’ seriousness and creativity when exposed to these new kinds of music. They seemed just so inspired and energized by it. Our second interaction occurred when Ed Bride organized a Berkshires Jazz concert that featured my jazz reimaginings of scenes from classical music, and I had my trio there, and the Kids 4 Harmony strings joined me for the last two songs, because I had done some chamber arrangements. And, once again, I was very impressed with their musicality and their spirit. They seemed like young, seasoned pros in some ways. It was very charming how they came in, having just rehearsed—they were prepared, and, like anyone else, we did one rehearsal and the concert. And it was really fun.
Just one rehearsal?
Yes. But this time, we’re gonna do two [laughs]. The “Rhapsody” is a little more involved.
Which arrangement are you using?
Well, interestingly enough, Ed Bride and Sean Elligers reached out to me—I’ve played “Rhapsody in Blue” many times with symphony orchestra, with the Paul Whiteman orchestra arrangement, with my own trio arrangement that I have recorded, and solo. And they said, “Well there’s actually a version for piano and string quintet—a string quartet plus a bass—and they sent me a YouTube link. I’ve also played a brass arrangement of it with a group at Manhattan School of Music. You always wonder who’s going to play the clarinet.
Indeed! Who plays the opening clarinet part in the quintet arrangement?
Well, when we did the brass arrangement, it turned out to be a trombone, and I guess, based on the range of the trombone, it would be viola. In fact, I believe it is the viola that will play that famous opening glissando.
So I went to YouTube and thought it was really a charming, worthwhile arrangement and was so pleased that they asked me to do it. They have been working on it, of course, and their conductor [Jorge Soto] will also be involved, so that’s good. We’ll rehearse Friday and Saturday and perform Saturday at Shakespeare & Company.
Lets talk about the piece itself. What’s the difference between improvised jazz and the jazz that George Gershwin wrote out for “Rhapsody in Blue”?
Of course, in traditional readings of it (so to speak), there is no actual improvisation. But I would add that I like to do that myself, and I sort of embellish the cadenzas a little bit further and do some improvisation. But when Gershwin wrote it, I think it was conceived more like a classical piece, that it would be the written notes to be performed, although the story goes that Gershwin didn’t have time to write it all out, and there was that famous last cadenza where he wrote in the score to Paul Whiteman, “Wait for nod.” And he would nod and then the orchestra would come back in—because he didn’t have time to write down his own piano part!
What was unusual was that there was no music for the conductor to follow. It was just, “I’m going to play for a while, and I’ll nod when it’s time to come back.” So I do a little more of that, in terms of adding my own improvisations, but generally speaking, “Rhapsody in Blue” is played in terms of notes on the page being executed by performers. That’s more in the classical tradition.
What makes it jazz-y is that the rhythms and the harmonies and the character and all that is full of jazz, harmonically, and then the blues, of course—”Rhapsody in Blue.” It goes without saying that there are lots of blues elements. So, you know, I think any big jazz composition that might involve an orchestra is going to deal with these balances of what might be written out and what might be improvised. There’s so many different ways you can do that, it’s really an endless well of choices.
Is it safe to say that Gershwin wanted “Rhapsody” fully notated so that others could play it as authentically as he did?
Oh yes! And he did notate a good bit of it, but it was just for that first performance that he hadn’t finished. Yes, he wanted other people to play his piece, and Oscar Levant, who was his sort of comrade and fellow pianist, often played it. So, yes, it did end up getting fully written out, and so, again, it’s got jazzy elements, jazzy rhythms, jazzy harmonies, and blues elements. But, ultimately it’s not an improvised jazz performance.
Still, Gershwin must have hoped audiences would be convinced that a real jazz musician was performing it.
Well, listen: Personally, I prefer performances of “Rhapsody” from people that, of course, really have the right feeling for that music— because the style of the music is so clearly coming from the 1920s jazz sensibility. There are some terrific classical pianists who play it well. But for me, you really need to have—and some of them do have—a jazz feeling as well as the technique [laughs] to execute all the notes.
I am reminded of Kirill Gerstein. Have you heard him play “Rhapsody”?
Well, interestingly enough, I substituted for Kirill Gerstein when he had to cancel at the 92nd Street Y’s concert that was gonna be “Rhapsody in Blue” and “Concerto in F.” So it’s funny that you brought him up. The story will go down as one of my most harrowing. They called me the day before.
Oh my god!
My wife said, “Do it!” and I was like, “What!?” [laughs] I played both pieces, and it actually went very well. I got a nice Times review out of it, but it was a harrowing experience—exciting, though.
What does Gershwin’s success with “Rhapsody” and “Porgy and Bess” say about the ability of white jazz composers to earn the respect of Black jazz artists?
Things become popular for various reasons. And I think that jazz musicians are always serious-minded, whatever background they come from. And if they think a piece is quality … Miles Davis said something like, “I don’t care if musicians are green as long they can play.” So I think, certainly, the popularity of this piece shows that it’s got broad appeal, worldwide, and it’s got memorable melodies and catchy rhythms, and you could say that about any number of composers from any background.
Certainly there’s Gershwin, whose pieces are played by—and honestly I think that’s one of the miracles, you could almost call it, of American culture and the melting pot that does not get its due:
These sometimes white—and Jewish, often—composers wrote pieces that were performed and expanded upon by the Black jazz artists. And really, to me, that’s a shining example of good for the American melting pot. And I think people are not always seeing it in the positive light that it can be seen. It could only have happened here—and it did. And so, you know, listen: All musicians take, borrow, and steal from colleagues, and Gershwin used to go up to Harlem and listen to stride pianists, and then—jazz artists play his music and do their own thing with it, too. So I think quality music is quality music, and he happened to be just a great melodicist who wrote things that people still want to play a hundred years later.
Any other comments about Kids 4 Harmony?
Well, I’m so pleased to be a part of their organization in terms of collaborating with them, because it’s young people, it’s people often from backgrounds that don’t have immediate exposure to classical music and strings and all that. And the energy and excitement that results from these kinds of collaborations is really terrific. So I’m looking forward to this one, and I’m looking forward to the next one down the line as well.
And what might the next one be?
Well, you know, I imagine we could possibly do some more of my compositions or arrangements that involve sort of a chamber orchestra or string orchestra or string quartet, since that’s basically what their instrumentation is, so I’ll be happy to think of ideas. Maybe they’ll come up with some ideas, too, and, like I say, I’ll be looking forward to both this upcoming “Rhapsody in Blue,” which I’ll be exposed to for strings for the first time, which is really great, and then looking for other ways to collaborate.
How about a composition written by one of the Kids 4 Harmony musicians?
Well, interestingly enough, in the first masterclass I did, this young girl raised her hand and said, “I wrote a piece. Can I play it for you?” So they are working on composition, and yeah! You never know! That could be something that we might be able to work on together and perform together.
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Hear Ted Rosenthal and Kids 4 Harmony at Shakespeare & Company on Saturday, April 15 at 7 p.m. In the first set, Ted’s trio (Martin Wind, bass; Tim Horner, drums) will explore the Gershwin catalog, with the Kids 4 Harmony ensemble joining him on “Rhapsody in Blue” in the second set. Tickets here.
