Michael Feinstein

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Michael Feinstein ( born September 7, 1956) is an American singer and pianist, and an interpreter of and anthropologist and archivist for the repertoire known as the Great American Songbook. The Library of Congress elected him to the National Sound Recording Advisory Board, an organization dedicated to safeguarding America’s musical heritage.

Feinstein was born to Jewish-American parents Edward, a former singer and sales executive for the Sara Lee Corporation, and mother Maizie, a semi-professional tap dancer, in Columbus, Ohio. At the age of five, he studied piano for a couple of months until his teacher became angered that he wasn't reading the sheet music she gave him, since he was more comfortable playing by ear. As his mother saw no problem with her son's method, she took him out of lessons and allowed him to enjoy music his own way.

After graduating from high school, he worked in local piano bars for two years, moving to Los Angeles when he was 20. Through the widow of legendary concert pianist-actor Oscar Levant, he was introduced to Ira Gershwin, who hired him to catalogue his extensive collection of phonograph records. The assignment led to a six-year musical excavation of Gershwin's home on Beverly Hills' Roxbury Drive, preserving the legacy of not just Ira but his composer brother George, who had died four decades earlier, as well. Feinstein's extended tenure enabled him to get to know next-door neighbor Rosemary Clooney, with whom he formed an intensely close friendship lasting until Clooney's death. He later would serve as musical consultant for My One and Only, a Broadway musical pastiche of Gershwin tunes.

Liza Minnelli helped sponsor his 1986 New York City debut, and his Broadway show, Isn't It Romantic, was a critical and commercial success. Three years later, he recorded his first CD, The MGM Album, a collection of tunes from some of the studio's most popular movie musicals. He followed this in quick succession with Live at the Algonquin and compilations of songs by Burton Lane, Jule Styne, and Jerry Herman.

The four-time Grammy Award-nominee has spent his entire adult life chronicling, cataloging, preserving, protecting, and recording the work of various composers, including musical greats like the Gershwins and such lesser-known names as Hugh Martin, Jimmy Webb, Jay Livingston, Ray Evans, and Johnny Mercer. In 2001, he recorded a collection of standards with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and a year later he was featured on the concept album Miss Spectacular.

Feinstein is the owner of the Manhattan nightclub, Feinstein's at the Regency, a showcase for cabaret performers. He himself performs there for a sold-out Christmas holiday stint each year.

Feinstein currently is at work on a six-part Warner Home Video series for television that depicts the history of the American popular song up to 1960.

[edit] Reference

Nice Work If You Can Get It: My Life in Rhythm and Rhyme by Michael Feinstein, 1995

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Official fan club
• Michael Feinstein at the Internet Movie Database