Standard Time with Michael Feinstein

Performers

• Michael Feinstein, Artistic Director
• 
  With Special Guests:
  Kate Baldwin
  Adam Swanson
  
  With Pianist:
  Rob Berman

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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• Kate Baldwin

  
  Soon after graduating from Northwestern University, Kate Baldwin made her Broadway debut in The Full Monty in 2000, followed by appearances in Thoroughly Modern Millie and Wonderful Town. She frequently performs in regional theaters and was nominated for the Helen Hayes Award for her portrayal of Nellie Forbush in the 2002 Arena Stage production of South Pacific.
  
  Ms. Baldwin played the role of Sharon in the 2009 Encores! concert production of Finian's Rainbow. She reprised the role in the Broadway revival that brought the Encores! production to the St. James Theatre in October 2009, earning her a Tony nomination for Best Actress in a Musical. She recently appeared at the Dallas Theater Center in a new musical version of Giant, a co-production with the Public Theater; the show featured music by Michael John LaChiusa with book by Sybille Pearson. Additional credits include the national tour of Irving Berlin's White Christmas, Opening Doors in Zankel Hall, The Women at San Diego's Old Globe, Henry V at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, and She Loves Me at the Huntington Theatre Company and Williamstown Theatre Festival.
  
  Ms. Baldwin has performed in concert with The New York Pops and the National, Chicago, and Detroit symphony orchestras. Her television appearances include Law & Order: SVU and Live from Lincoln Center.
  
  In October 2009, Ms. Baldwin released her first solo album, Let's See What Happens, a compilation of songs written by Burton Lane and E. Y. "Yip" Harburg. Her second album, She Loves Him, was released in 2011 and exclusively features the music of Broadway legend Sheldon Harnick.

  
  Adam Swanson

  
  Adam Swanson-who lives in the small town of Shenandoah, Iowa-is rapidly becoming known as one of the world's foremost performers and historians of ragtime and early American popular music. He has studied piano with Waleed Howrani of Ann Arbor, Michigan, a graduate of the Moscow State Conservatory, and is currently in his second year of college under the tutelage of Dr. Lisa Campi, a graduate of the Eastman School of Music. His other mentors include Max Morath, Jeff Barnhart, Bob Seeley, Terry Waldo, and Richard Dowling.
  
  Although Mr. Swanson is only 19 years old, he has been a featured performer and lecturer at ragtime and jazz festivals across the United States. He is the youngest three-time winner of the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest, held in Peoria, Illinois. Because he won the adult division of the contest three years in a row, Mr. Swanson was required to "retire" at the age of 18. In 2007, he appeared alongside the late, great Canadian pianist John Arpin at the Bohem Ragtime and Jazz Festival in Hungary. They were the only two North American pianists invited; while there, Mr. Swanson was given an award for cultural diplomacy by the US Ambassador to Hungary.
  
  Mr. Swanson's first duet album was with legendary 1950s pianist and recording artist Johnny Maddox, who has sold more than 11 million records. The two continue to perform together each summer at the historic Strater Hotel in Durango, Colorado. Mr. Swanson has also recorded with pianist Frederick Hodges of the Royal Society Jazz Orchestra and Ian Whitcomb, a former rock star and ragtime entertainer.
  
  Visit adamgswanson.com for more information.

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