A fine student of
America’s musicMICHAEL FEINSTEIN
In concert: 7 p.m. tomorrow
By Tim Ryan
Star-BulletinHe's been called "America's Popular Song Ambassador," "The Trustee of America's Greatest Music," and the "Professor of Popular Music," but Michael Feinstein, who's performed for presidents and potentates, doesn't read music.
"I never went to college so I never had formal training to read music," he said. "That would have been very nice."
To learn how to play "Rhapsody in Blue" Feinstein had to memorize the piece and "it took me a long, long time."
"I would love to be able to sit down and read an orchestral score," said Feinstein, who never attended college. "But I worked in a lot of piano bars, which was sort of a backwards way to get a degree."
Feinstein joins forces with Honolulu Symphony's Pops Conductor Matt Catingub for a celebration of Broadway's musical treasures, including hits by Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and the Gershwins, tomorrow at the Waikiki Shell.
Feinstein prides himself as a good student in other ways, and someone fortunate enough to have a link with the greatness of the Gershwins. Inspired by George and Ira Gershwin and their timeless songs, this singer, pianist and composer has turned his appreciation and admiration for the great American songwriting team into a successful career.
It's well-known that Feinstein, a Grammy-nominated vocalist with 16 albums, was a protege of Ira Gershwin.
He moved to Los Angeles in 1976, where he befriended his soon-to-be mentor. Feinstein's first release, the first of three in a Gershwin series, was in 1985.
To commemorate George Gershwin's 100th birthday last year, Feinstein released "Nobody But You," the latest in his Gershwin trilogy.
But Feinstein has another recently surfaced musical interest: film scores.
When he was asked to be part of the documentary "Get Bruce," Feinstein asked the producers if a song had been written for the film. There hadn't been.
"So I played something and they decided to use it as the title song," Feinstein said. "Then they eventually asked me to do the whole score."
Ann Margaret sings the title song.
Feinstein likes capturing an emotion and augmenting scenes with "the power of music."
"It's very intriguing to me," he said. "Composing music is a mysterious process anyway and there's a tremendous excitement and challenge to capturing a very specific emotion needed for a scene."
Feinstein has a well-deserved reputation for being both a sharp musical scholar and passionate performer, built around moving interpretations of classical pop standards written by composers like Cole Porter and Jerome Kern. He's performed thousands of shows, including the Algonquin performance and a sold-out Carnegie Hall debut. He's appeared for three presidents at the White House and before England's Queen Mother.
"I used to get very nervous, but not anymore," he said. "I guess I'm more secure. I realized that if I'm getting nervous then I'm not focusing on the music. So I concentrate on what I want to convey rather than on incidentals."
As for his Honolulu Pops concert, Feinstein will play "a grab bag of material."
"I have a lot of arrangements collected through the years, like really classic Gershwin arrangements," he said. "One is a 1948 MGM orchestration of 'You Can't Take That Away From Me,' which was Ira's favorite orchestration of that song."
As part of the symphony's Music and Artists of Hawaii project, vocalist Azure McCall will open the show.
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