Michael Feinstein, the Great American Songbook troubadour and archivist, has topped his contributions to musical history with the Center for Performing Arts in Carmel, Indiana. The multi-million dollar complex holding a museum and library with interactive displays and online access around the world is located in America's heartland where great composers Cole Porter and Hoagy Carmichael grew up before making their way to Broadway and Hollywood.
Its 1,600-seat Palladium Theater that opened in February 2011 is an acoustically ideal venue for guest artists and Feinstein himself. He anticipates that the museum and library will be completed in about two years. They will grow incrementally as he transfers the many orchestrations, original sheet music and art work in his possession to the facility.
Carmel, Indiana, with its Porter and Carmichael connections, is the perfect spot for the complex because it is just across the border and a short drive from Columbus, Ohio where Feinstein grew up. Enamored by the popular music he played in local piano bars, he dared to make his way to Los Angeles when he was only 20 years old. He was not there long before meeting pianist Oscar Levant who soon introduced him to Ira Gershwin. Once the personable Feinstein made his interest and talents known, Gershwin invited him to become his assistant. For the next six years, he archived the published and unpublished songs of Ira and George. Along the way, he met and became caretaker of music by their friends Harry Warren, Burt Lane, and other major composers.
Today Feinstein serves on the Library of Congress' National Recording Preservation Board. When he is not concertizing around the country, recording or performing at the keyboard of his Manhattan nightclub, Feinstein's at Loews Regency, he spends evenings poring through his enormous collection of musical manuscripts and memorabilia stashed in his three homes. In the meantime, he continues sifting through his collection and occasionally makes important discoveries. During his research several years ago, he found a lost song by Cole Porter written for "The Gay Divorcee." Last year, he found an unknown Johnny Mercer song.
Along with launching his Center for Performing Arts, Feinstein has made waves and received kudos already this year for the duo CD recorded live at his nightclub with Tony Award winner and Broadway legend Barbara Cook Entitled "Cheek To Cheek," it alternates their harmonious duets with solo interpretations of timeless pop standards like "Without A Song," "I've Got You Under My Skin" and "There'll Be Some Changes Made."
Never one to stand still, Feinstein has projects aplenty underway, including writing the score for "The Gold Room," a musical about the heiress Barbara Hutton set during the period of her life in the 1950s when she gave up her residence to the U.S. government. He is also composing the score for a musical based on MGM's "The Thomas Crown Affair."
He loves composing, performing and sharing the Great American Songbook with his audiences. In looking back at all he has managed to accomplish and ahead to future opportunities, he feels very lucky.
Emily Cary is a prize-winning teacher and novelist whose articles about entertainers appear regularly in the DC Examiner. She is a genealogist, an avid traveler, and a researcher who incorporates landscapes, cultures and the power of music in her books and articles.
