continued from page 1 While Gershwin's piano roll performances were recently revived on two Nonesuch recordings utilizing Disklavier technology -- Gershwin Plays Gershwin (1994) and Gershwin Plays Again (1996) -- the Boston Pops was the first American orchestra to present the composer as soloist in a concert performance of "Rhapsody in Blue." One month later, Newton Wayland featured the Disklavier in the first of a series of Gershwin concerts he has scheduled across Canada. With the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony outside Toronto, Wayland concluded his George Gershwin In Concert program with the composer's piano roll performance of "Rhapsody in Blue" realized by the Disklavier. Wayland had great success with this format when he first presented it with the Vancouver Symphony in 1996. The Ontario audiences were delighted with the nostalgic touch. As one critic summarized, "It's rather eerie to watch the keys go up and down on the piano and sense the ghostly presence of the composer who had recorded it." Wayland will present a similar Gershwin concert this summer in Seattle, WA. Among the other celebrations featuring the Disklavier is the original theatrical production, A Night With Gershwin. Starring Stan Zielinski and Rob Barg of Yamaha Canada Music Ltd. and acclaimed Canadian vocalist Carol Welsman, A Night with Gershwin has resumed performances in Mississauga, Toronto and Saskatoon this winter and spring. The production tells the story of life in Tin Pan Alley and features performances of Gershwin works on the Disklavier. In addition to celebrating the Gershwin Centennial, this year's productions will also help raise money for a number of organizations, including the Canadian Music Competition. In March, the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. hosted a festival entitled The Gershwins and Their World. Featuring performances, talks, panel discussions and the opening of the George and Ira Gershwin Room in the newly-restored Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library, the event drew together a number of prominent musicians, scholars and historians. Among the participants were Artis Wodehouse, discussing the Gershwin piano rolls using a Disklavier, Michael Tilson Thomas, Dick Hyman and ragtime legend Max Morath, each addressing a different aspect of Gershwin and his contemporaries.

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