Michael Feinstein
Michael Feinstein—the multiplatinum-selling, five-time Grammy-nominated entertainer—is one of the premier interpreters of American popular song. He can be heard on The Sinatra Project, his 2009 Concord Records release that celebrates the music of “Ol’ Blue Eyes,” and seen in the PBS series Michael Feinstein’s American Songbook, now available on DVD.
If that weren’t enough, Feinstein serves as Artistic Director of the Center for the Performing Arts—a $170 million, three-theater venue in Carmel, Indiana—that opened last January. The theater is home to an annual international Great American Songbook festival, diverse live programming, and a museum for Feinstein’s rare memorabilia and manuscripts.
Feinstein has written the score for the new stage musical The Gold Room, and he is working with MGM to turn The Thomas Crown Affair into a Broadway musical. He also is designing a new piano for Steinway called “The First Ladies,” inspired by the White House piano.
Feinstein started playing piano by ear when he was five. As a teenager, he played at weddings and parties in Columbus, Ohio. After graduating from high school, he worked in local piano lounges, moving to Los Angeles when he was 20. Through the widow of legendary concert pianist-actor Oscar Levant, he was introduced to Ira Gershwin in July 1977. He became his assistant for six years, giving Feinstein access to numerous unpublished Gershwin songs that he has since performed and recorded.
More than simply a performer, Feinstein is nationally recognized for his commitment to celebrating America’s popular song and preserving its legacy for the next generation. He serves on the Library of Congress’s National Recording Preservation Board, ensuring the survival, conservation, and increased public availability of America’s sound-recording heritage.
Marilyn Maye
Marilyn Maye is a cultural and musical treasure. Her entire life has been committed to the art of song and performance. She made 76 appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson—the all-time record for a singer. Perhaps the most simple and eloquent accolade came as she finished one of her show-stopping appearances on The Tonight Show when, turning to his nightly audience of millions, Mr. Carson said, “And that, young singers, is the way it’s done.”
Ms. Maye’s place in American music history was assured when the prestigious Smithsonian Institution chose her recording of “Too Late Now” for inclusion in its Best Performers of the Best Compositions of the 20th Century permanent collection. Her recordings for RCA consist of seven albums and 34 singles, including “Cabaret” and “Step to the Rear.” Her album with full orchestra, The Lamp Is Low, is also considered to be a classic.
Ms. Maye has earned many awards in recognition of her work, including the 2008 and 2009 New York Nightlife Critics Award, and the 2008 Backstage Bistro Lifetime Achievement Award. She was recently named the Manhattan Association of Cabarets’ Celebrity of the Year, in addition to receiving the Mabel Mercer Award, the Licia Albanese-Puccini Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Kansas City Women in Film and Television Lifetime Achievement Award.
In November 2010, Ms. Maye made a triumphant appearance at Carnegie Hall with The New York Pops in a birthday celebration for Stephen Sondheim. Later this spring, she is scheduled to perform at Feinstein’s at Loews Regency.
Amanda McBroom
Amanda McBroom’s name came to the public’s attention when Bette Midler’s version of her song “The Rose” hit the top of the charts. McBroom’s songs have been recorded by Barbara Cook, The Manhattan Transfer, Judy Collins, Barry Manilow, Betty Buckley, and many others. She received a Golden Globe, a Grammy nomination, and the Johnny Mercer Award for Songwriter of the Year. With Michele Brourman, McBroom has written songs for 14 Universal Animation Studios films, including most of The Land Before Time series. She was a featured songwriter for the cult TV classic series Cop Rock. McBroom has written two musicals, Heartbeats and A Woman of Will. Her third, Dangerous Beauty, had its world premiere at the Pasadena Playhouse in February 2011. McBroom has performed in concert worldwide, from Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center to Sydney’s City Recital Hall Angel Place. She has also headlined both the Melbourne and the Adelaide cabaret festivals. She has recorded eight CDs, including her latest, 2009’s Chanson: Amanda McBroom Sings Jacques Brel.
Billy Stritch
Billy Stritch is one of the premier singer-pianists on the New York and national jazz and cabaret scene. Stritch will next be performing at 59E59 in The Best Is Yet To Come, a revue of Cy Coleman’s music that he co-conceived with director-lyricist David Zippel. His most recent nightclub act, Billy Stritch Sings the Mel Tormé Songbook, earned rave reviews from New York music critics; he has since released a CD entitled Billy Stritch Sings Mel Tormé. Stritch has appeared in cabaret venues across the nation, as well as in concert performances at the London Palladium, NHK Hall in Tokyo, and Rio de Janeiro’s Municipal Auditorium. In New York, he has performed at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, and originated the role of Oscar in the 2001 Broadway revival of 42nd Street. It was in this production that Stritch met Christine Ebersole, laying the groundwork for a happy and mutually rewarding musical collaboration that has produced the Sunday In New York and In Your Dreams recordings. Stritch is also a songwriter and arranger; his song “Does He Love You” was recorded by Reba McEntire and Linda Davis. The single reached the top spot on the Billboard Country chart, won a Grammy Award, and sold more than five million copies. He has arranged for many top performers and is a frequent collaborator with Liza Minnelli, having most recently overseen the music for her smash five-week Broadway show Liza’s At The Palace, which won the 2009 Tony Award for Best Theatrical Event. Stritch is the winner of a Music City News Award, a BMI Song of the Year Award, and six honors from the Manhattan Association of Clubs and Cabarets.
Michael A. Kerker
Michael A. Kerker has been Director of Musical Theatre for ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers) since 1990. In addition to coordinating ASCAP’s Musical Theatre Workshop in New York, he works with Disney Theatricals to produce the ASCAP / Disney Musical Theatre Workshop in Los Angeles (both of which are led by composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz). Together with Michael Feinstein, Kerker produces a regular series of concerts at Carnegie Hall that highlights the catalogue of both legendary and contemporary songwriters.
Kerker is also producing a regular series of interview programs entitled Broadway: Up Close and Personal for the Kennedy Center. His onstage conversations with some of our nation’s most prominent songwriters have included evenings with Jerry Herman, Alan and Marilyn Bergman, Charles Strouse, Sheldon Harnick, Marvin Hamlisch, and Stephen Schwartz. He also produces an annual songwriter’s cabaret, as part of the Chicago Humanities Festival.
Kerker produced the ASCAP Foundation Jerry Herman Legacy Program—a series of seminars, master classes, and concerts that feature the legendary composer-lyricist. The program has been presented nationwide in such cities as Chicago, Sundance, San Francisco, Savannah, Miami, and Pittsburgh.
Kerker is proud to be a member of the Boards of the American Theatre Wing, the Johnny Mercer Foundation, and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Scott Coulter
For his work in cabaret, Scott Coulter has received four MAC Awards, four Bistro Awards, and two Nightlife Awards. His self-titled debut CD won the 2003 MAC Award for Outstanding Recording and was chosen as the best recording of the year by TheatreMania and Cabaret Scenes magazine. Coulter toured the US as Jinx in Forever Plaid and was in the world premiere of Floyd Collins, directed by Tina Landau. He has appeared at New York City's Town Hall in numerous editions of the popular Broadway by the Year series and can be heard on the Bayview recordings of those performances.
Since 1997, Coulter has performed around the country with award-winning songwriting duo Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich. He also tours the world with Oscar- and Grammy-winning composer Stephen Schwartz, along with Liz Callaway and Debbie Gravitte, in the revue Stephen Schwartz and Friends. Coulter has taught master classes from California to Latvia and is creator of his own vocal-coaching series called Songbook. As a director, his credits include many shows for Town Hall and the Berkshire Theatre Festival.
Coulter is co-founder and owner of Spot-On Entertainment and is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music.
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