Michael Feinstein to Launch Center Theatre Group Residency With COMING HOME: THE HOLIDAY CELEBRATION

After almost two decades away from the Mark Taper Forum, the incomparable Michael Feinstein returns with a Center Theatre Group residency under the banner of Feinstein’s at the Taper on Sunday, December 3 at 7 p.m. with Michael Feinstein in “Coming Home: The Holiday Celebration.” 

Michael Feinstein is coming home to the Taper for the first time in over 15 years. Feinstein launches his Center Theatre Group Residency with a special celebration featuring a sparkling array of holiday standards and special experiences that will surely get you and your loved ones in an exquisite holiday mood. This world premiere concert includes a mix of classic holiday songs, jazz standards and never-before-performed arrangements of music from the Great American Songbook, brought to magical life with a combination of live performance, a multimedia children’s choir, and dynamic dance.

Feinstein’s at the Taper is part of CTG:FWD, a series of special events and programming under a new initiative created by CTG Artistic Director Snehal Desai at the Mark Taper Forum, the Kirk Douglas Theatre, and throughout the greater Los Angeles area. In “Coming Home,” Feinstein will present a holiday show for the ages featuring some very special guests to be announced. He will then return on February 10 and April 13 with two more specials created just for Center Theatre Group audiences, as part of this new partnership with CTG as an L.A. Artist in Residence. 

“I am delighted to be invited back to the Taper as an Artist-in-Residence and to be in collaboration with Snehal. Having Feinstein’s at the Taper is the fulfillment of a dream,” says Feinstein. “I can't imagine a better way to kick off this collaboration than by celebrating the upcoming holiday season and doing so with some of my favorite performers here on the Taper stage. It feels good to be coming home.”

“At the heart of CTG: FWD is creating space for community to gather through special, one-of-a-kind events that both celebrate Center Theatre Group’s rich history and look forward to the future. I can think of no better way to do all of this than by welcoming Michael back home to CTG as an artist-in-residence for the incredible line-up of concerts over the coming months. He is an iconic artist who knows the Great American Songbook like no one else and I can't wait to kick things off by celebrating the holidays with him at the one and only Mark Taper Forum.” 

Michael Feinstein, Ambassador of the Great American Songbook, has continued to build a dazzling career over the last three decades bringing the music of the Great American Songbook to the world. From his recent 2022 Tony Award to recordings that have earned him five Grammy Award nominations and his Emmy nominated PBS-TV specials, his acclaimed series and concerts have spanned the globe in addition to his appearances at iconic venues such as The White House, Buckingham Palace, Hollywood Bowl, Carnegie Hall and Sydney Opera House. His work as an educator and archivist define Feinstein as one of the most important musical forces of our time.
 

ABOUT CTG:FWD

CTG:FWD was created by Center Theatre Group Artistic Director Snehal Desai to provide greater opportunities for community gatherings and conversations, can’t-miss special events, legacy projects, and ways to help center Los Angeles-based artists and the arts community. It also  provides a unique opportunity to open the doors of the Mark Taper Forum—which announced a pause in subscription programming for the 2023/24 Season—and welcome members of the community back into that space for some of these special events and programs. 

CTG:FWD is funded in part by special artistic discretionary funds that were raised for new Artistic Director Snehal Desai’s first year to be used on special programming, gatherings, and events like the ones outlined in this new initiative. Plans for Desai’s first full season at the Taper are still underway and we hope to share more this spring.

"Coming Home: The Holiday Celebration” goes on pre-sale for Donors and Subscribers on Wednesday, November 1 at 12 p.m. The public on sale date is scheduled for Friday, November 3 at 12 p.m. Tickets are available through CenterTheatreGroup.org, Audience Services at (213) 972-4400, or in person at the Center Theatre Group Box Offices (at the Ahmanson Theatre) at The Music Center, 135 N. Grand Avenue in Downtown L.A. 90012. 

Center Theatre Group, one of the nation’s preeminent arts and cultural organizations, is Los Angeles’ leading not-for-profit theatre company, which, under the leadership of Artistic Director Snehal Desai, Managing Director / CEO Meghan Pressman, and Producing Director Douglas C. Baker, programs seasons at the Mark Taper Forum and Ahmanson Theatre at The Music Center in Downtown Los Angeles, and the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City. In addition to presenting and producing the broadest range of theatrical entertainment in the country, Center Theatre Group is one of the country’s leading producers of ambitious new works through commissions and world premiere productions and a leader in interactive community engagement and education programs that reach across generations, demographics, and circumstances to serve Los Angeles. Center Theatre Group has produced more than 700 productions across its three stages, including such iconic shows as “Zoot Suit;” “Angels in America;” “The Kentucky Cycle;” “Biloxi Blues;” “Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992;” “Children of a Lesser God;” “Curtains;” “The Drowsy Chaperone;” “9 to 5: The Musical;” and “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo.” CenterTheatreGroup.org

American Express is the official credit card for Center Theatre Group.
 

BIOGRAPHY

Michael Feinstein In addition to his recognition as one of the leading musical entertainers and piano virtuosi of recent decades, Michael Feinstein’s work as an educator, archivist, interpreter, and Ambassador of the Great American Songbook have established the popular and honored musician as a pre-eminent force in contemporary music. His dazzling career as a top-selling and critically acclaimed recording artist and a star performer on Broadway, and the world’s great concert stages has earned him five GRAMMY® Award nominations, two Emmy nominations of his PBS-TV specials and acclaim for his NPR series.  His live concerts have spanned the globe including such iconic venues such as The White House, Buckingham Palace, Hollywood Bowl, Carnegie Hall, and the Sydney Opera House.

In 2022, Feinstein released to rave reviews, Gershwin Country, an album of standards in duet with some of the biggest names in Country Music from Dolly Parton and Alison Krauss to Brad Paisley and Amy Grant.  This same year he made his debut at the legendary Carlyle Café in New York to rave reviews and sell out performances.

In 2007, as an extension of his work as a legendary performer and passionate guardian of his nation’s greatest musical traditions, Mr. Feinstein founded the Great American Songbook Foundation. The Foundation works to preserve and elevate America’s rich musical legacy by curating physical artifacts of its creators and performers; offering programs for the public and research opportunities for scholars, historians, and performers; and providing educational opportunities for student musicians, including the annual high school Songbook Academy®. For over a decade, Michael served as a Founding Member on the Library of Congress’ National Recording Preservation Board; an organization dedicated to ensuring the survival, conservation and increased public availability of America’s sound recording heritage.

Feinstein earned his fifth Grammy Award nomination in 2009 for The Sinatra Project, his CD celebrating the music of “Ol’ Blue Eyes.” The Sinatra Project, Volume II: The Good Life was released in 2011. He released the CDs The Power Of Two – collaborating with “Glee” and “30 Rock” star Cheyenne Jackson – and Cheek To Cheek, recorded with Broadway legend Barbara Cook. For Feinstein’s CD We Dreamed These Days, he co-wrote the title song with Dr. Maya Angelou.

His Emmy Award-nominated TV special Michael Feinstein – The Sinatra Legacy, which was taped live at the Palladium in Carmel, IN, aired across the country in 2011. The PBS series “Michael Feinstein’s American Songbook,” the recipient of the ASCAP Deems-Taylor Television Broadcast Award, was broadcast for three seasons and is available on DVD. His most recent primetime PBS-TV Special, “New Year’s Eve at The Rainbow Room” – written and directed by “Desperate Housewives” creator Marc Cherry – aired in 2014.  For his nationally syndicated public radio program “Song Travels,” Michael interviewed and performed alongside of music luminaries such as Bette Midler, Neil Sedaka, Liza Minnelli, Rickie Lee Jones, David Hyde Pierce and more.

Feinstein was named Principal Pops Conductor for the Pasadena Symphony in 2012 and made his conducting debut in June 2013 to celebrated critical acclaim. Under Feinstein’s leadership, the Pasadena Pops has quickly become a premier orchestral presenter of the Great American Songbook with definitive performances of rare orchestrations and classic arrangements.  He launched an additional Pops series at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in Palm Beach, Florida in 2014.

Michael’s book The Gershwins and Me – the Los Angeles Times best-seller from Simon & Schuster – features a new CD of Gershwin standards performed with Cyrus Chestnut at the piano. 

Feinstein serves as Artistic Director of the Center for the Performing Arts, a $170 million, three-theatre venue in Carmel, Indiana, which opened in January 2011. The theater is home to diverse live programming and a museum for his rare memorabilia and manuscripts. Since 1999, he has served as Artistic Director for Carnegie Hall’s “Standard Time with Michael Feinstein” in conjunction with ASCAP. In 2010 he became the director of the Jazz and Popular Song Series at New York’s Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Feinstein’s at the Nikko, Michael’s nightclub at San Francisco’s Nikko Hotel, has presented the top talents of pop and jazz since 2013. Feinstein’s/54 Below in New York debuted in 2015 and was awarded a special Tony Award for Excellence in Theatre in 2022.  His first venue in New York, Feinstein’s at the Regency, featured major entertainers such as Rosemary Clooney, Glen Campbell, Barbara Cook, Diahann Carroll, Jane Krakowski, Lea Michele, Cyndi Lauper, Jason Mraz, and Alan Cumming from 1999 to 2012.  Feinstein opened his Los Angeles location, Feinstein’s at Vitello’s in June of 2019 and most recently launched Feinstein’s at the Hotel Carmichael in Carmel, Indiana.

He has designed a new piano for Steinway called “The First Ladies,” inspired by the White House piano and signed by several former First Ladies. It was first played to commemorate the Ronald Regan centennial on February 6, 2011.

In 2013 Michael released Change of Heart: The Songs of Andre Previn in collaboration with four time Oscar and eleven time Grammy Award-winning composer-conductor-pianist Andre Previn. The album celebrates Previn’s pop songs and motion picture classics. Earlier album highlights include Hopeless Romantics, a songbook of classics by Michael’s late friend Harry Warren, recording with legendary jazz pianist George Shearing. His album with songwriting icon Jimmy Webb, Only One Life – The Songs of Jimmy Webb, was named one of “10 Best CDs of the Year” by USA Today. 

Feinstein received his fourth Grammy nomination for Michael Feinstein with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, his first recording with a symphony orchestra. The year before, Rhino/Elektra Music released The Michael Feinstein Anthology, a two-disc compilation spanning 1987 to 1996 and featuring old favorites and previously unreleased tracks.

Michael was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, where he started playing piano by ear as a 5-year-old. After graduating from high school, he moved to Los Angeles when he was 20. The widow of legendary concert pianist-actor Oscar Levant introduced him to Ira Gershwin in July 1977. Feinstein became Gershwin’s assistant for six years, which earned him access to numerous unpublished Gershwin songs, many of which he has since performed and recorded.

Gershwin’s influence provided a solid base upon which Feinstein evolved into a captivating performer, composer, and arranger of his own original music. He also has become an unparalleled interpreter of music legends such as Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Johnny Mercer, Duke Ellington, and Harry Warren. Feinstein has received three honorary doctorates.

Through his live performances, recordings, film and television appearances, and his songwriting (in collaboration with Alan and Marilyn Bergman, Lindy Robbins, Bob Merrill, and Marshall Barer), Feinstein is an all-star force in American music. 

For more information, please visit www.MichaelFeinstein.com.

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