Grammy Winner Janis Siegel to Mentor Young Singers at the 2016 Songbook Academy

CARMEL, IN - Nine-time Grammy winner and seventeen-time Grammy nominee, Janis Siegel, will join Songbook Academy founder, Michael Feinstein, for this one-of-a-kind music and performance intensive for high school students.

"The Songbook Academy is a transformative experience," said Michael Feinstein, five-time Grammy nominee and founder of the Great American Songbook Foundation and Songbook Academy. "It is a place where young people can come and learn about the Great American Songbook in an intensive way. We spend every moment of that time sharing, educating, and uplifting in a way that we feel will change the lives of our students forever."

The Songbook Academy will take place at the Songbook Foundation's headquarters in Carmel, IN, July 16-23, 2016. Students will participate in a seven-day academy on interpreting and performing the music of the Great American Songbook. Five-time Grammy nominee, Michael Feinstein, and other top music industry professionals and educators will conduct workshops and master classes throughout the week. The week culminates in a performance that will be held in the 1,600 seat Palladium Concert Hall at the Center for the Performing Arts, of which Feinstein serves as Artistic Director.

The program is open to all high school students in the continental United States. Applications for the 2016 Songbook Academy are now available online at www.TheSongbook.org until March 25, 2016.

Over the past three decades, the voice of Janis Siegel a nine-time Grammy winner and a seventeen-time Grammy nominee has been an undeniable force in The Manhattan Transfer's diverse musical catalog. Alongside her career as a member of this 32-year musical institution,

Siegel has also sustained a solo career that has spawned more than a half dozen finely-crafted solo albums and numerous collaborative projects, amassed a large international fan base and garnered consistently high critical praise.

Over the years, Janis' unmistakable voice has become one of the group's most recognizable trademarks. She sang lead on some of the Transfer's biggest hits, such as "Operator," "Chanson D'Amour," "Twilight Zone," "Birdland," "Ray's Rockhouse," "Sassy," "Spice of Life," "Mystery," and "The Boy from N.Y.C." She also gained a reputation as a vocal arranger by writing five of the charts for the group's acclaimed masterwork, Vocalese, seven charts for the group's Grammy-winning album Brasil, and won a Grammy herself in 1980 for her arrangement of "Birdland." In 1993, she and her Manhattan Transfer colleagues received their honorary doctorates from the Berklee School of Music, and in 1999 they were among the first class of inductees into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame.

Now in its seventh year, the Songbook Academy provides high school singers in grades 9-12 with the life-changing opportunity to work with music industry professionals and educators from top college arts programs to experience firsthand the uniquely American and culturally significant music known as the Great American Songbook. Recent Mentors have included: Tony nominee Laura Osnes; Grammy winner Cheryl Bentyne; Grammy winner Sylvia McNair; and Grammy nominee Jane Monheit.

The Songbook Academy is designed to be a collaborative, rewarding, and fun experience for all participants. Students will have the opportunity to participate in workshops, one-on-one coaching sessions, and master classes with celebrity performers, music industry professionals, and educators from top college arts programs from across the country. The week's events will culminate in a live show on July 23, 2016, at the Palladium in Carmel, IN, where award winners will be selected. Applications are now being accepted for the 2016 program. For more information, visit www.TheSongbook.org.

Michael Feinstein founded the Great American Songbook Foundation, a non-profit organization, in 2007 in order to preserve, promote, and perpetuate the music of the Great American Songbook. The mission of the Foundation is to inspire and educate by celebrating the Great American Songbook. The home of the Great American Songbook Foundation is on the campus of The Center for the Performing Arts, in Carmel, IN.

The work of the Foundation includes:

- High School Songbook Academy
- Educational programming
- Library, Archives, and Gallery Exhibits
- Great American Songbook Hall of Fame

The Center for the Performing Arts , located in Carmel, IN, includes the 1,600-seat Palladium concert hall, the Tarkington 500-seat proscenium theater and the 200-seat Studio theater. The Center serves as a permanent fixture on the Central Indiana landscape and provides an extraordinary listening experience for audiences. The concert hall is also home to the Great American Songbook Foundation, acting as a museum and education center by day and a concert venue by night. This world-class performing arts center is under the direction of President/CEO Tania Castroverde Moskalenko. Michael Feinstein serves as Artistic Director.

Michael Feinstein, the multi-platinum-selling, two-time Emmy and five-time Grammy Award 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, Sydney Opera House and the Hollywood Bowl as well as the White House and Buckingham Palace. Feinstein's work has received national recognition for his commitment to celebrating America's popular song and preserving its legacy for the next generation. He founded the Great American Songbook Foundation in 2007. Feinstein also serves as Artistic Director of the Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel, Indiana, which opened in January 2011.

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