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Folsom Lake Community Concert Association is pleased to present Richard Glazier 3:00 p.m., Sunday, March 13, 2011 Folsom Lake College Regional Visual & Performing Arts Center, Folsom
Richard Glazier is one of today's foremost interpreters of the American Popular Songbook and probably most closely associated with music of George and Ira Gershwin. According to Michael Feinstein, "Richard Glazier has Gershwin in his soul." And Clavier Magazine wrote of him, "Gershwin's piano music has found an exquisite voice in Richard Glazier." Glazier's love for this music and the era in which it was written dates back to his first encounter with George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. Glazier remembers, "I was 9 years old and one day I was rummaging through my Aunt Esther's record cabinet when I found an old 78 rpm recording of Rhapsody in Blue played by Oscar Levant with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. She played it for me and I was hooked. I wanted to know everything about George Gershwin so she took me to the library, where we checked out books and sheet music—everything we could get our hands on about George and his lyricist brother Ira and their era. She even suggested I write a fan letter to Ira Gershwin. Amazingly, he answered and we began a three-year correspondence. In 1975, when I was 12 years old, he invited me to his Beverly Hills home. We spent many hours together and this brilliant man of Arts and Letters, America's best known lyricist, could not have been nicer to me or more encouraging. In my concerts I always tell the story of meeting Ira because it literally changed the course of my life. Since we met, and it's been more than 30 years ago now, I can honestly say that not a day has gone by that I have not either discussed, played or studied the music of George and Ira Gershwin. I feel a very strong connection to them and through them to the other great composers and lyricists of their era. It gives me enormous pleasure to tell their stories and play their music for audiences everywhere." |
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FLCCA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization. EIN # 94-3224032.
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