Michael Feinstein

Michael Feinstein is an American singer and pianist who became known as an interpreter of the Great American Songbook. Born in Columbus, Ohio, he played local piano bars after high school and moved to Los Angeles at 20, where an introduction in 1977 led Ira Gershwin to hire him to catalog his record collection; the job grew into six years of research and preservation of unpublished sheet music and rare recordings. He released his first album, Pure Gershwin (1987), and starred in a series of Broadway concerts beginning in 1988. He won a Drama Desk Special Award in 1988 and is a five-time Grammy nominee. He hosted the radio program Song Travels with Michael Feinstein and wrote the score for two stage musicals. He founded the Great American Songbook Foundation and serves as artistic director of the Allied Solutions Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel, Indiana.