Standard Time with Michael Feinstein

Performers

• Michael Feinstein, Artistic Director
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  With Special Guests:
  Monica Mancini
• Karen Mason
• Aaron Weinstein
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  With Pianists:
  Christopher Denny
• Mamiko Kitaura

Bios

• Michael Feinstein

  
  Michael Feinstein, the multi-platinum-selling, five-time Grammy-nominated entertainer dubbed "The Ambassador of the Great American Songbook," is considered one of the premier interpreters of American standards. His 200-plus shows a year have included performances at Carnegie Hall, the Sydney Opera House, and the Hollywood Bowl, as well as the White House and Buckingham Palace.
  
  Mr. 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' National Recording Preservation Board, which has been asked to ensure the survival, conservation, and increased public availability of America's sound-recording heritage.
  
  Mr. Feinstein earned his fifth Grammy nomination in 2009 for The Sinatra Project; a companion CD, The Sinatra Project, Volume II: The Good Life, was just released on Concord Records. A new PBS concert special, The Sinatra Legacy, is also currently airing across the country. Last year's PBS series Michael Feinstein's American Songbook is now available on DVD with an additional disc of bonus features. The recipient of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Television Broadcast Award, the series returns this January.
  

  Recently, Mr. Feinstein released The Power of Two (a collaboration with Glee and 30 Rock star Cheyenne Jackson) and Cheek to Cheek (with Broadway legend Barbara Cook). His newest recording is We Dreamed These Days, featuring the Carmel Symphony Orchestra and including the title song that he co-wrote with Dr. Maya Angelou.
  
  Mr. Feinstein serves as artistic director of the Center for the Performing Arts-a $170 million, three-theater venue in Carmel, Indiana. The theater is home to an annual international Great American Songbook festival, diverse live programming, and a museum for Mr. Feinstein's rare memorabilia and manuscripts. In 2010, he also became director of Jazz at Lincoln Center's Jazz and Popular Song Series.
  
  Mr. Feinstein is working with MGM to turn The Thomas Crown Affair into a Broadway musical. He has also designed a new piano for Steinway called "The First Ladies," inspired by the White House piano and signed by several former First Ladies.
  
  A young Michael Feinstein started playing piano by ear when he was five. 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.

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• Karen Mason

  
  Karen Mason is a 10-time MAC Award winner, receiving the award for Major Female Vocalist of the Year six consecutive times. She also won the 2006 Nightlife Award for Major Female Vocalist and three Bistro Awards.
  
  Ms. Mason most recently starred as The Queen of Hearts in Wonderland, Velma Von Tussle in Hairspray, Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, and originated the role of Tanya in Mamma Mia!, for which she earned a 2002 Drama Desk nomination. She also won the Outer Critics Circle Award for her performance in And the World Goes 'Round.
  
  This internationally acclaimed vocalist has performed throughout the world and has shared concert stages with such musical luminaries as Luciano Pavarotti, Rosemary Clooney, Liza Minnelli, Jerry Herman, and John Kander and Fred Ebb. Her starring symphony concert performances include The New York Pops with Skitch Henderson, the Philly Pops with Peter Nero, the Oklahoma City Philharmonic with Joel Levine, and the St. Louis Symphony with John McDaniel.
  
  Ms. Mason's highly acclaimed recordings include Right Here / Right Now, Sweetest of Nights, and When the Sun Comes Out. She is also featured on the soundtrack of Jeffrey, the studio cast recording of Wonderful Town, and the original cast album of And the World Goes 'Round.

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• Aaron Weinstein

  
  Called "the Groucho of the violin" by Tony Bennett and "a perfect musician" by jazz guitar legend Bucky Pizzarelli, Aaron Weinstein is quickly earning a reputation as one of the finest jazz musicians of his generation. As a featured soloist, Weinstein has performed at Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Wolftrap Foundation for the Performing Arts, Birdland, Blue Note, The Iridium, and abroad at jazz festivals in England, France, Switzerland, Iceland, and Israel. Weinstein has performed and recorded with an array of jazz icons, including Les Paul, John Pizzarelli, Scott Hamilton, Dick Hyman, Dave Frishberg, Ken Peplowski, Houston Person, Jon Hendricks, and Annie Ross, as well as The New York Pops's founder and conductor Skitch Henderson. Weinstein has written arrangements for such artists as Michael Feinstein, Christine Ebersole, Janis Siegel, Billy Stritch, and Hilary Kole. He is a New York Nightlife Award winner and a recent graduate of the Berklee College of Music, where he was awarded a full four-year talent-based scholarship. With the release of his Arbors Records debut, A Handful of Stars, Weinstein became the youngest jazz musician to have recorded as a leader for this prestigious traditional jazz label. His newest release, Blue Too, is a duo with John Pizzarelli, and is also available on Arbors Records. In addition to performing and arranging, Weinstein is a bow tie-rights activist. He lives in New York City.

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