Dr. Richard Kogan, a Juilliard trained concert pianist and Harvard educated psychiatrist, will give a lecture/concert for the Santa Fe Distinguished Lecture Series on Thursday, August 4 at 7 pm at United Church Santa Fe. In addition to playing the unique music of George Gershwin, Dr. Kogan will explore the impact of psychological issues that shaped the creative output of Gershwin, one of the greatest Jewish American composers. The evening concert will be highlighted by piano performances of Gershwin masterpieces from “Rhapsody in Blue” to “Summertime”, “Porgy and Bess” and more of his classical pieces.
Dr. Kogan has a distinguished career as a concert pianist and as a psychiatrist, and his performances have been called “eloquent, compelling, and exquisite playing” by The New York Times. The Boston Globe says, “Kogan has somehow managed to excel at the world’s two most demanding professions.” He has gained renown for his lectures and recitals that look at the role of music in healing and shaping the creative output of composers from Mozart and Beethoven to Tchaikovsky and Bernstein. Dr. Kogan performed with a dozen major American orchestras from the Los Angeles Philharmonic to the Baltimore Symphony and world-wide from Europe to Asia.
Dr. Kogan is a master storyteller with an analytical insight that will trace Gershwin’s evolution from a hyperactive youth to a narcissistic teenage to the brilliant composer he was to become. He struggled with depression and died of a brain tumor at the age of 38.