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Composition by George Gershwin

Concerto in F is a composition by George Gershwin for solo piano and orchestra which is closer in form to a traditional concerto than his earlier jazz influenced Rhapsody in Blue. It was written in 1925 on a commission from the conductor and director Walter Damrosch. It is just over half an hour long.

Damrosch had been present at the February 12, 1924 concert arranged and conducted by Paul Whiteman at Aeolian Hall in New York City titled An Experiment in Modern Music which became famous for the premiere of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, in which the composer performed the piano solo. The day after the concert, Damrosch contacted Gershwin to commission from him a full scale piano concerto for the New York Symphony Orchestra, closer in form to a classical concerto and orchestrated by the composer. Because of contractual obligations for three different Broadway musicals, he was not able to begin sketching ideas until May 1925. He began the two piano score on July 22, after returning from a trip to London, and the original drafts were entitled "New York Concerto". The first movement was written in July, the second in August, and the third in September, much of the work being done in a practice shack at the Chautauqua Institution. This had been arranged through the Australian composer and teacher Ernest Hutcheson, who offered seclusion for Gershwin at Chautauqua, where his quarters were declared off limits to everyone until 4 p. m. daily. Thanks to this, Gershwin was able to complete the full orchestration of the concerto on November 10, 1925. Later that month, Gershwin hired a 55 piece orchestra, at his own expense, to run through his first draft at the Globe Theatre. Damrosch attended and gave advice to Gershwin, who made a few cuts and revisions. According to a newspaper reporter in attendance, the pipe "wandered in and out of his mouth all through the rehearsal. In particular, he used it to point accusingly at members of the orchestra who were not solving their jazz problems successfully." The Concerto in F shows considerable development in Gershwin's compositional technique, particularly because he orchestrated the entire work himself, unlike the Rhapsody in Blue which was scored by Ferde Grofé, Paul Whiteman's section pianist and principal orchestrator. The English composer and orchestrator William Walton commented that he adored Gershwin's orchestration of the concerto.

In addition to the solo piano, the work calls for 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets in B♭, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, 4 Horns in F, 3 trumpets in B♭, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, 3 percussionists (first player: bass drum, glockenspiel, xylophone and triangle; second player: snare drum, woodblock, whip; third player: cymbals, (crash & suspended), triangle and gong), and strings.

Although Gershwin never recorded the concerto, he was invited by Rudy Vallee to play the third movement from the concerto on an NBC radio broadcast in 1931, which was preserved on transcription discs and later issued on both LPs and compact discs. Vallee used a special arrangement prepared for his studio orchestra. Gershwin also played a few of his popular songs on the broadcast.

Figure skater Yuna Kim of South Korea skated to a four minute edited version of this piece at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, as well as 2009 Trophée Éric Bompard, 2009 Skate America, and 2009–10 Grand Prix Final, winning the gold medal for ladies' figure skating and breaking the world record score for the women's long program. When she competed in the 2010 World Championships, she won the silver medal totaling 190.79 points.