In a performance to be livestreamed from the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts, Professor Emeritus Orin Grossman, PhD, will present the music of Porgy and Bess, by the great American composer George Gershwin.
Although audience seats must remain empty, joyful music will once again fill the Quick Center’s Aloysius P. Kelley, S.J. Theatre at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 8 when acclaimed Gershwin scholar and musician Dr. Orin Grossman takes his familiar place before the theatre’s Steinway Concert Grand model D piano.
Gershwin – and Grossman – afficionados are invited to claim their very own virtual front-row seat to Dr. Grossman’s livestreamed performance, which promises to be an engaging evening of music from Gershwin's controversial masterpiece Porgy and Bess, including the classic songs "Summertime," "It Ain’t Necessarily So," and “Bess, You Is My Woman Now,” in special arrangements by the great American pianist, Earl Wild. Throughout the night, Dr. Grossman will intersperse his performance with stories of the fascinating history behind Gershwin's opera. Tickets are available at quickcenter.com.
With engaging elucidation of great American and European music, Dr. Grossman has performed and lectured around the world. In addition to the Quick Center and Carnegie Hall, he has brought the stories behind the songs and classical compositions of Gershwin’s music to Florence, Cairo, Australia, and St. Petersburg. Robert Kimball, author of The Gershwins, wrote in the New York Post of one concert:
“Throughout the evening everything Grossman played was crisp, fluent, richly contrasted and wonderfully detailed. The way he put together and presented a group of Gershwin’s piano transcriptions, beginning with “Swanee” and building to an exciting climax with “I Got Rhythm,” was a model of excellence.”
A member of the Fairfield University faculty since 1975, Dr. Grossman has served as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, academic vice president, and currently as emeritus professor of visual and performing arts. Introduced to music at the age of five when he began playing piano at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Dr. Grossman graduated magna cum laude from Harvard and earned a PhD in music from Yale University.
Dr. Grossman’s onstage performance at the Quick's Kelley Theatre on Dec. 8 at 5 p.m. is a premier event and will be livestreamed via thequicklive.com. Tickets are $20 and available at quickcenter.com. This and other Quick Center premier events are free for Fairfield University students, members of the President's Circle and Bellarmine Society, and Quick Center Members.
