George Gershwin, Porgy and Bess
Arranged by Russell Garcia
Tiffany Austin, Bess
Bradley Kynard, Narrator
Robert Sims, Porgy
Marc Taddei, conductor
To conclude our season, we feature one of the very greatest operas of the 20th century - Porgy and Bess. Gershwin's undoubted classical masterpiece of 1935 has had productions throughout the world, and we are pleased to present the legendary Hollywood composer and arranger Russell Garcia who wrote this for Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong in 1959.
Russell Garcia (1916 - 2015) was an American composer and arranger who wrote a wide variety of music for screen, stage and broadcast. He was a composer/ arranger at NBC Studios, Universal Studios, and MGM Studios where he composed and conducted an original score for such films as The Time Machine, Atlantis, and The Lost Continent. In 1957 he arranged and conducted the adaption (which the VSO is performing for you) of Porgy and Bess for Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald.