Hélène Grimaud with George Gershwin, National Arts Centre Orchestra, and more

George Gershwin was an iconic American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned jazz, popular, and classical genres. Born in Brooklyn, New York, to Russian Jewish immigrants, he dropped out of school at age 15 to work as a song plugger in Tin Pan Alley before finding major commercial success with his first massive hit, Swanee, in 1919. Throughout the 1920s and early 1930s, he collaborated extensively with his lyricist brother Ira to create a succession of 22 highly successful Broadway musical comedies, including Girl Crazy and the Pulitzer Prize-winning political satire Of Thee I Sing. Gershwin famously bridged the gap between popular and classical music with enduring orchestral works like Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris, and the landmark opera Porgy and Bess, before tragically dying of a brain tumor at the age of 38.

Alexander Shelley is an English conductor born in London. One of the foremost conductors of his generation, he serves as the Music Director of Canada's National Arts Centre Orchestra, Principal Associate Conductor of London's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and Artistic and Music Director of Artis-Naples. He first gained widespread international attention after unanimously winning first prize at the 2005 Leeds Conductors Competition.