George Gershwin — composer with roots in the Russian Empire
George Gershwin (1898–1937) composed Rhapsody in Blue and Porgy and Bess, fusing jazz and classical forms into a distinctly American voice. Born in Brooklyn to Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire, he became one of the 20th century's most celebrated composers.
"Morris and Rose Gershwine emigrated from Odessa, Russian Empire, to New York City around the 1890s."
Migration storyTracing the roots — St. Petersburg
His parents, Morris and Rose Gershwine, fled the Russian Empire's Pale of Settlement — a world of pogroms and precarity — for New York's Lower East Side. That immigrant hunger and displacement shaped Gershwin's restless ambition and his ear for the outsider's longing woven into American music.
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St. Petersburg. At the time, this region lay within the Russian Empire, which spanned from Poland to the Pacific.