HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY, Hempstead, NY Ð The Hofstra University Cultural Center will present I Hear A Rhapsody: The Classical Music of George Gershwin on Saturday, April 6, in celebration of the rediscovered classical music of one of America's greatest composers. Panel discussions, lecture-demonstrations and concerts will be presented during this one-day event.

Gershwin's recently expanded classical solo piano repertoire will be featured during this symposium. These rediscovered and reconstructed works have brought him even more recognition around the world as a major American classical composer. It is the musicological research of the Joseph G. Astman Distinguished Symposium Scholar Dr. Alicia Zizzo that led to the publication of solo piano editions of The Annotated Rhapsody in Blue, The Complete Seven Preludes, Blue Monday, Lullaby and others by Warner Bros. Publications under the auspices of the Gershwin estate.

The day-long event will conclude with a concert by pianist Jeffrey Biegel, an internationally renowned Gershwin specialist, who will perform the solo piano Rhapsody in Blue and other Gershwin works at 8:30 that evening in the University's Monroe Lecture Center Theater. Symposium highlights include:

11 AM Ð The Early Gershwin and the World Around Him panel discussion featuring Dr. Zizzo, Edward Jablonski, author of The Encyclopedia of American Music and co-author of The Gershwin Years, and Stuart Isacoff, editor in chief of Piano Today.

1:45 PM Ð The Lost Piano Preludes and Newly Reconstructed Major Works a lecture-demonstration featuring Dr. Zizzo, Washington DC-based pianist Haskell Small, who will perform the solo piano An American in Paris and Argentinean pianist Mirian Conti, who will perform the lost Preludes, Lullaby for solo piano and Blue Monday.

3:30 PM Ð I Am an American: From Theater to Opera panel discussion featuring Hofstra's Herbert Deutsch, the symposium director, Wayne Shirley of the music division of the Library of Congress, Edward Jablonski and Stuart Isacoff.

6 PM Ð Dinner featuring an address by composer and pianist Leopold Godowsky III, nephew of George Gershwin.

8:30 PM Ð Jeffrey Biegel Concert

Complete symposium information, including the full day's schedule and event locations, links to information about Dr. Alicia Zizzo, pianist Jeffrey Biegel and an article titled George Gershwin: A Look Into His Little Known and Previously Lost Piano Works can be found at http://www.hofstra.edu/CampusL/Culture/Culture_Gershwin.cfm.

Registration for the symposium panels is $25, $20 for senior citizens. Tickets to the dinner are $30 per person and tickets for the Jeffrey Biegel concert are $20, $17 for seniors. To register for the symposium, buy event tickets or for more information, please call the Hofstra Cultural Center at 516-463-5669.

For more information about Dr. Alicia Zizzo or Jeffrey Biegel, please contact Jeffrey James Arts Consulting at 516-586-3433 or jamesarts@worldnet.att.net.