Michael Feinstein brings his Great American Songbook to Strathmore
Strathmore's Spring Gala will feature showtunes and other pop and cabaret standards
Michael Feinstein
Michael Feinstein wasn’t exactly sold on the idea of basing his Great American Songbook Foundation in deep-red Indiana, and a meeting with the mayor of the city of Carmel seemed unlikely to change his mind.
“Before I met with him, I thought, ‘Why would I want to go there?'” he says. But nine years ago, Feinstein moved to the Indianapolis suburb, a city Money magazine has consistently called one of the best places in the country to live. “It went from being this little podunk farm town to a model city for other communities with the combination of redevelopment, of support for the arts, of bringing industry, and all of those things interrelated to create one of the most extraordinary, high-quality living situations.”
It’s also become a welcome landing pad for Feinstein — who also serves as artistic director for Carmel’s Center for the Performing Arts — and his husband when the performer isn’t in New York, or out on the road.
“It seems like it is my lot in life to be an itinerant musician, to travel and sometimes be routed like a ping-pong ball from one point back to the other on the globe,” he says. Not that he takes it for granted. “I’m constantly counting blessings and realizing that it is miraculous for me, an uneducated musician, to be able to share music as my livelihood.”
What Feinstein lacks in formal music training he more than makes up for in sheer devotion to the art, such as highlighting “the next generation of performers” in the cabaret series he launched earlier this season at AMP by Strathmore. (There’s one more starlet still to come: Eva Noblezada, last year’s Tony-nominated star of Miss Saigon, on Sunday, June 24. Cabaret veteran Marilyn Maye will also appear at AMP courtesy of Feinstein on Saturday, July 14.)
Feinstein is currently focused on his next engagement: Strathmore’s Spring Gala. “We will have a 17-piece big band, and Laura Osnes will be a special guest,” he says. In between performances of showtunes and other pop and cabaret standards, Feinstein will share insights and anecdotes about the Great American Songbook.
“I promised so many of the songwriters whom I was lucky enough to meet when I was 20 that I would always do what I can to help keep their work alive,” he says. “I take that seriously because what they created is so extraordinarily healing and important for our time now, and the work is timeless. It resonates so deeply.”
Strathmore’s Annual Spring Gala is Saturday, May 12, at 9 p.m., at the Music Center, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda. Tickets are $45 to $130, including an after-party. Call 301-581-5100 or visit strathmore.org.
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