General Meeting: October 2025

Roger Browne made a welcome return visit, having last visited in 2024, and gave an entertaining and informative talk about the history of music in America.

Roger, who is President of the Stockport Operatic Society and began singing and playing music at the age of 4, talked about Irving Berlin and his family’s escape from Russia in the late 1890s and how he, as a Jewish man, ended up writing White Christmas and God Bless America.

George and Ira Gershwin’s family were migrants from Ukraine and Roger described their upbringing and the encouragement George received from an early age once his innate musicality was clear.

He worked as a song plugger in Tin Pan Alley and went on to write Swanee, Rhapsody in Blue and the opera Porgy and Bess, many of which Roger played excerpts from and sang along to.

Ira’s lyrics complemented his brother's music so well, and it was a tragedy that George died so young at 38 from a brain tumour.

Roger also talked about Scott Joplin and Thomas A Dorsey who gave us some of the first ragtime and gospel music.

Roger’s talk was excellent, and I agree with a member of the audience who told me “he was so entertaining he went over time and there was no time to ask questions”.

Sally Lord
Sue Warren