Vernon Duke led a remarkable dual career as both a classical composer under his birth name Vladimir Dukelsky and a popular songwriter who contributed enduring standards to the Great American Songbook. Born in Russia in 1903, Duke arrived in New York as a refugee in 1921. His compositional output spanned symphonies, concertos, and chamber music alongside Broadway scores and popular songs written with lyricists including Ira Gershwin, E.Y. Harburg, and Johnny Mercer. Duke's greatest commercial success came through sophisticated standards including the wistful "Autumn in New York," for which he wrote both words and music in 1934, the elegant "April in Paris" with Harburg's lyrics, and the harmonically adventurous "I Can't Get Started" featuring Ira Gershwin's witty lyrics. He died in 1969.
