Michael Feinstein - The Gershwins: Preserving an American Cultural Legacy

Westminster Town Hall Forum - October 25, 2012
Michael Feinstein is an Emmy and Grammy-nominated musician and entertainer who is widely recognized for his commitment to preserving the legacy of America's popular song. He serves on the Library of Congress National Recording Preservation Board. He is director of the Jazz and Popular Song Series for New York City's Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Artistic Director of the Palladium Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel, Indiana. He hosts the public radio program Song Travels, and his PBS specials include Michael Feinstein's American Songbook. His new book, The Gershwins and Me, is a tribute to the brothers who most influenced his career.

Пікірлер: 53

  • @theuofc
    @theuofc6 күн бұрын

    I loved watching this. Michael Feinstein is an inspiration in so many ways: for his talent in singing and playing, for his intelligence as a "teacher" and for his ability to pass on so much information about music, performers and composers and to make it fascinating. Such a multitalented man. What a great presentation.

  • @jeffcollins5188
    @jeffcollins51884 күн бұрын

    All of these songs credited to the Songbook were before my "time", but I recognize that these songs should be represented because they are that classic in every way.

  • @milliemouse6525
    @milliemouse65253 жыл бұрын

    Michael Feinstein, always loved you :-) and still do!!! Thou Swell (R&H - love, love them too)!

  • @donaldshilts9863
    @donaldshilts986310 жыл бұрын

    How wonderful it is to have a person like Michael Feinstein as our ambassador of music. I feel this because he keeps great music like the Gershwin's music alive. Michael Feinstein has a depth of music that is not found as often as one would like. We are so privedledged to have him presenting the Great American Songbook. Thank You Michael Feinstein

  • @carolesullivan9125

    @carolesullivan9125

    7 жыл бұрын

    Michael Feinstein is the most wonderful singer and piano player really enjoy his music

  • @ElizabethBehrensdePhelps
    @ElizabethBehrensdePhelps3 жыл бұрын

    Michael, You Are Great!!!!!! Thanks for being so special.

  • @jc6594
    @jc65947 жыл бұрын

    Happy 60th Birthday Michael Feinstein

  • @piustwelfth
    @piustwelfth7 жыл бұрын

    I met Michael Feinstein approx. 20 years ago at a Hollywood memorabilia show in Los Angeles. We were both looking at vintage sheet music. He was always looking for rare and/or unusual pieces of music. I have no doubt he's still collecting!

  • @josegago1862
    @josegago18623 жыл бұрын

    I am happy to live in a season where we have artists like Michael Also long time ago I eas neighber of Mts Thata Leys who was friend of George Gershwen

  • @JamesLeaveyConnections
    @JamesLeaveyConnections4 жыл бұрын

    What a really nice, talented, thoughtful musician. He deserves all his accolades.🎼😷😎🎹

  • @NYCBG

    @NYCBG

    2 жыл бұрын

    If you say so.

  • @veronicanicholls7132
    @veronicanicholls71326 ай бұрын

    Wonderful video! brought me so much joy,❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤💌

  • @dannyvegasman
    @dannyvegasman11 жыл бұрын

    this is wonderful. thanks very much for the upload.

  • @mylesgarcia4625
    @mylesgarcia46256 жыл бұрын

    Thank you Michael for all this selfless and unselfish work you do. I have been a great fan of yours since I saw your perform @ The Hollywood Hotel in like, 1985 or 1986. May God hold you in the palm of his hand.

  • @ingelakjellberg2123
    @ingelakjellberg21233 жыл бұрын

    The worlds artist faithful America U.S.A;s composers: APPLAUSE to Michael Feinstein!❤

  • @lornecutler3904

    @lornecutler3904

    2 жыл бұрын

    P

  • @elsagranadosalonso3059
    @elsagranadosalonso30599 ай бұрын

    ERES MARAVILLOSO MICHAEL, HERMOSA VOZ, ARREGLISTA, PIANISTA, MÚSICO, SIEMPRE EN MI CORAZÓN!!

  • @rehoboth2721
    @rehoboth27214 жыл бұрын

    Can't wait to see Michael spark a new generation with Jackie Evancho at Feinstein's 54 this month.

  • @lynnesanders8215
    @lynnesanders82152 жыл бұрын

    Michael Feinstein is playing in London on the 25th October 2021. And I am pleased to say that I have a ticket. Sooooooo happy. xxxx

  • @brendaproffitt1011
    @brendaproffitt10116 жыл бұрын

    Totally Awesome....I Love 💘 💘 💘 💘 💘 IT..Thank you so so much...

  • @lynnebethell7943
    @lynnebethell794311 жыл бұрын

    I have been a devoted fan of Michael's talent for many years & now my son Darren is also a big fan. If he's gonna follow in someone's footsteps it might as well be the best! More success to you Michael.

  • @MARIALUIZA-vf8cv
    @MARIALUIZA-vf8cv4 ай бұрын

    I loved

  • @MultiRobinbird
    @MultiRobinbird9 жыл бұрын

    wow I had no idea of this close relationship. What a lucky guy!

  • @drumcircler
    @drumcircler5 жыл бұрын

    National treasure Michael reignites the national treasure Gershwin music. Top shelf!

  • @jasoncarpp7742
    @jasoncarpp774211 жыл бұрын

    I've always loved Michael Feinstein. He's one of my favourite musicians.

  • @ccaammiinniiito2
    @ccaammiinniiito28 жыл бұрын

    It's 02/13/16, 12:00, and I've just finished watching an exceedingly well narrated documentary on the life of Fred Astaire and all the magnificent dancers in his life, including Jane Powell, whom we normally associate with singing roles. Thank God for Michael Feinstein and Robert Osborne, two people destined to tell the story of a once great period in movie making in Hollywood. These gems must be told over and over. And when they're not, they must be tucked away in time capsules for unborn generations to watch. I'm so glad I appreciated Astaire and his career. This is not to say I didn't appreciate the many other dancers, including backup dancers. But at the apex of them all is Astaire. I could go on singing till the cows come home (sound familiar?) about his legacy. Unfortunately, there not much time here. So let's leave the storytelling to two people who know how to tell the story.

  • @patricemoran7469

    @patricemoran7469

    3 жыл бұрын

    Absolutely agree with everything you've said...thank the Creator for giving us the gift of Fred Astaire... a unique..multi-talentedl artist whose work transcends time.

  • @larryshaver3568
    @larryshaver35682 жыл бұрын

    that shirt michael was wearing here was beautiful, i'd like to get one

  • @alexzander8817
    @alexzander88172 жыл бұрын

    Amazing true story

  • @drbobcaster
    @drbobcaster2 ай бұрын

    Better than his book. Great with an audience.

  • @stevenc.raphael5404
    @stevenc.raphael540411 жыл бұрын

    I've played Piano for Michael's Mother Years ago, I've talked with Michael many times We both know Kate Swift, Georges Girl Friend in real life. Michael Feinstein has always been very kind soft spoken to me, I'm new to you tube I've been on for 2 months. Soon I'll make some serious video's, people seem to like when I do silly one. I'm playing Piano at the 100 million Holland Center tomorrow night solo concert. May the lord bless this performance.

  • @1935RonK
    @1935RonK8 жыл бұрын

    I've read the book. I've got the music. And now - a wonderful completeness.

  • @wrycker5409

    @wrycker5409

    8 жыл бұрын

    What book do you mean, Ron?

  • @1935RonK

    @1935RonK

    8 жыл бұрын

    'The Gershwins and me', Wrycker. It's an expensive book but I managed to pick it up on eBay at a bargain price. I really love George and Ira's Gershwin's songs.

  • @wrycker5409

    @wrycker5409

    8 жыл бұрын

    Thanks, Ron. They're marvelous, indeed! Specially when Feinstein performs. I'll try to get it ;)

  • @1935RonK

    @1935RonK

    8 жыл бұрын

    I got mine on eBay. There's a Deluxe version (mine), a paperback and a Kindle. Good luck - and I totally agree about MF

  • @ferociousgumby
    @ferociousgumby9 жыл бұрын

    Gershwin is a time traveller - you can see him out of the corner of your eye. He did not die in the normal sense of the word, because he did not know where he was. He was in a very high fever and dying all alone in a hospital room after failed brain surgery. When he left his body, he experienced extreme disorientation and for quite a while did not realize he was dead. This meant that a light, loose Gershwin-shaped energy field still moved about the world, and lit up whenever his music was played (which was almost all the time). After a very long time, though it was a mere moment in eternity, he began to realize who and how he actually was, that he was no longer in a body and would have to exist in a very different form. Being a soul sojourner from the beginning, this was not a threat but an adventure to him. But even in spite of this necessary metamorphosis, to a remarkable degree, he retained a George Gershwin shape. No matter what sort of problems he was having in his life, and he had many that we don't know anything about, there was a ferocious static-charged supernatural pumped boost of energy that somehow kept on connecting people with each other when he was around. But ironically, in spite of his sacred mission to join people joyously,in his life he had many struggles with intimacy, which led to a loneliness even as he was the most popular man in the room. During this strange leaving-his-body-and-not-being-sure-where-he-was period, he began to have extraordinary insight into not just his own condition, but the human condition. GG's emotional affect and his emotions seemed curiously light, but there was a galaxy of melancholy within that he did not show to too many people. The stars in that galaxy exploded out of his fingers and his brain and were made manifest as notes of music on the page. Though he lived at a hurtling pace few people could equal, little did he know that he was absorbing all of humanity's travails, gaining an understanding of suffering that would not be fully realized until he found himself in a different form outside his body. It would have been unbearably painful, had his life (as he knew it) not been over, a blessed cessation of all earthly pain. When a soul or entity gains this sort of awareness, mysterious alchemy takes place because the need here on earth for that level of understanding is so dire. Those pained and anguished places in that broken thing we call the human condition began to draw and attract this generous, gentle, deeply broken spirit. There was Gershwin dust in the room sifting down like stardust, particularly when there was music playing. And there was music playing a lot. Someone, not keeping up their guard, felt something strange or warm and not quite familiar in the room, yet also hauntingly familiar. Someone else thought they saw him for a second, or someone that looked like him. There was in some subconscious way a powerful sense that a healing was beginning to happen. As the entity begins to heal, so it heals itself. George's brain gave way, the most disturbing way to die, so that he was basically humbled by losing the genius brain he was celebrated for. Stripped of that, even of that, all that was left was his essence. How can I say how this happens? How can I be sure that George Gershwin is a time traveller and an entity who is basically free to move about within time and space wherever and whenever he wishes?

  • @lionelraoul

    @lionelraoul

    9 жыл бұрын

    +ferociousgumby Utter madness but quiet poetic. Keep the crazy coming if it's well written.

  • @9aloevera

    @9aloevera

    8 жыл бұрын

    wow...I believe this is possible....and I feel this loving energy in his music....and songs!! time travel sure its possible we live in a Multidimensional world....we all have these multidimensions within us I believe. There IS LIFE AFTER DEATH!

  • @khalidal-masri6011

    @khalidal-masri6011

    7 жыл бұрын

    youre insane.

  • @TruthIsNeverGossip
    @TruthIsNeverGossip10 жыл бұрын

    has he ever recorded a full version of "but not for me"? he did part of it on an old Thirtysomething episode and I'd love to hear a full version by him

  • @TheJustin1942
    @TheJustin19429 жыл бұрын

    christina, trust me. you are not alone, we all go through things and think we are alone, I feel that way often

  • @gailkatz6613
    @gailkatz661310 ай бұрын

    When will Michael Feinstein win the Gershwin Prize?

  • @jaysonbiggs8979
    @jaysonbiggs89795 жыл бұрын

    Current very good songwriters: Rene Marie, Sting, Gregory Porter, Stevie Wonder.

  • @christinasilva1776
    @christinasilva17769 жыл бұрын

    He is a great singer but the moment he said that he was a lonely kid with no friends and laughed I couldn't help but feel angry and upset. I actually started crying. The statement shown above is how I feel almost every single day and he just brushes it off like it was nothing. On top of that he is known by many while I'm practically a nobody. I know he didn't mean for that to happen but I'm not sure he would even believe how much that statement hurt. I know this is my problem but I don't feel like anyone understands my pain. I don't blame him in anyway.

  • @CushionOfWealth

    @CushionOfWealth

    9 жыл бұрын

    Tell Your psychiatrist, Christina, at your next appointment.

  • @arthurboehm

    @arthurboehm

    4 жыл бұрын

    He's reminded you of your own pain. But it's incorrect to assume that his experience of it was insufficiently deep (by your lights). He seems to have found a way to "digest" his early pain, which is to say, place it in his life in a way that keeps him from re-experiencing it. This isn't frivolous or uncaring; it's a matter of personal evolution.

  • @sottilario7213

    @sottilario7213

    4 жыл бұрын

    You can’t blame him for that. Everybody has his own process and this was his and yours is yours. I think you first have to stop with thinking that you are a nobody. You are as unique as Feinstein, only fewer people know that.

  • @glengutridge4614
    @glengutridge46144 ай бұрын

    i am a vintage vixen in the drag community here... i do music from the likes of margaret whiting and della reese through to the carpenters and helen reddy... i'm 62 this year and don't feel the modern music....

  • @kaylouisecook366
    @kaylouisecook3663 жыл бұрын

    didn't realize George Gerschwin died suddenly of a brain tumour! 38yo

  • @rohanhaggart
    @rohanhaggart10 жыл бұрын

    haha

  • @rohanhaggart
    @rohanhaggart10 жыл бұрын

    Why does michael change the gender of someone to watch over me? Michael is gay so he'd be singing a love song to a man. Why not sing to 'him' instead of 'her?' I thin Michael is a wonderful practitioner of these songs and have followed him for 20 years so I'm not criticising, just questioning.

  • @NYCBG
    @NYCBG2 жыл бұрын

    It's really unfair and even stupid, but his mouth is larger than his face. What is the name (or diagnosis) of this condition??