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Michael Feinstein (left)
shares his expertise
with and passion for
an essential part of
the nation’s music
heritage at his Great
American Songbook
Vocal Academy.
Magazine. “And I wanted to nd a pal-
pable way to continue it for succeeding
generations, as well as preserve the
many artifacts, orchestrations, and other
ephemera that I’ve accumulated that are
important for performance, for educa-
tion and entertainment.
“I started this organization about
years ago and it has blossomed into
something quite extraordinary. I think
the most visible thing that we do is
the annual Songbook Academy. High-
school kids from all states apply to
come to Carmel for one week and [go
through this] intensive academy where
their lives are changed in a way that is
wondrous to behold and deeply mov-
ing. It’s very di erent from shows like
American Idol
, where it is all contrived
and they present a backstory that may or
may not be true.
“What
we
do is extraordinary be-
cause there is an audience on the last
night [of the weeklong academy] and
people are so emotionally invested in
these young souls. And to see them get
scholarships, it is life-changing, and
it feels great because it’s like planting
seeds. ey will go out in the world;
their music will a ect others and make a
di erence.”
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
F E I NS T E I N I S PO I S E D
to make
his ninth appearance at Ravinia on Au-
gust , splitting the bill with Broadway
veteran and Tony Award winner Kristin
Chenoweth. “We are personal friends
and she is one of the great talents of
our time,” Feinstein said of Chenoweth.
“And one of the things I love about her
is her eclectic musical nature. While [my
part of the Ravinia program] will cer-
tainly have a lot of classic songs, I’m not
yet sure exactly what we’ll do together,
because the possibilities are gargantuan.”
Gargantuan is an understatement for
this “Ambassador of the Great Amer-
ican Songbook,” as Feinstein is lov-
ingly referred to in the industry. [ at
reputation brought him to a gathering
of the summer Los Angeles Philhar-
monic Institute at the Hollywood Bowl,
where Ravinia President and CEO Welz
Kau man was introduced to Feinstein
by its directors, Leonard Bernstein and
Michael Tilson omas.] Selecting a
concert setlist becomes a labor of love
for the -year-old music maker. “ ere
are literally hundreds of thousands of
great songs. … It really comes down to
picking a selection that’s right for the
moment or that will work in a particular
setting. When I do a summer venue like
Ravinia, it becomes inherently more
celebratory. I don’t know if it’s because
of the [drinks in the air] or the stars in
the sky, but it is something that is always
very romantic and feels very special.”
With a discography that pays tribute
to such gures as Burton Lane, Jule
Styne, Jerry Herman, Jimmy Webb,
Frank Sinatra, and of course the Gersh-
wins, there is little that Feinstein hasn’t
conquered musically. He has played
the greatest concert halls in the world,
as well as some of the most intimate
cabaret rooms in the chicest of cities.
He owns two such venues—Feinstein’s
at the Nikko in San Francisco, and
Feinstein’s/ Below in New York, where
Broadway and cabaret singers and musi-
cians regularly reign supreme.
“ e funny thing is that for most
of my career I’ve played large venues,”
Feinstein said. “I don’t play clubs very
o en. I did for a couple of years, and
then I started doing [big] concerts.
People still think of me as an artist who
plays in nightclubs, and that’s ne. I
don’t mind it. But most of what I do is
with orchestras. … [Regardless of the
venue], there is no di erence in the way
I connect with an audience. It is simply
[like having a] conversation, like we’re
in a room, and people relax. I certainly
have an awareness of the size of a place.
I always make sure that I [catch the eyes
of] everybody, put my energy out to
wherever anybody is seated.
“I think that that is the hard part and
that is the irony of performing,” Fein-
stein continued, “that it is an intimate
experience and it is a singular experi-
ence [to each] person who’s listening,
but at the same time it’s a collective
experience. And it is those two things in
tandem that give energy to a performer.
RAVINIA MAGAZINE | AUGUST 6 – AUGUST 19, 2018
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