Michael Feinstein (Photo provided by Feinstein’s at the Nikko via The Broadway Blog.)
Two-time Emmy and five-time Grammy Award-nominated Michael Feinstein returns to Feinstein’s at the Nikko with a special salute to the one-and-only Judy Garland for four performances only – September 28 – October 1, 2016.
The performance schedule is as follows: Wednesday, September 28 at 7 p.m.; Thursday, September 29 at 8 p.m.; Friday, September 30 at 8 p.m.; and Saturday, October 1 at 7 p.m. Tickets range in price from $80–$100 and are available now by calling 866.663.1063 or visiting www.feinsteinsatthenikko.com.
Michael Feinstein, Ambassador of the Great American Songbook, has built a dazzling career over the last three decades bringing the music of the Great American songbook to the world. From recordings that have earned him five Grammy Award nominations to his Emmy nominated PBS-TV specials, his acclaimed NPR series and concerts spanning 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.
In 2007, he founded the Great American Songbook Foundation, dedicated to celebrating the art form and preserving it through educational programs, Master Classes, and the annual High School Songbook Academy. Past graduates of the program have gone on to record acclaimed albums and appear on television programs such as NBC’s “America’s Got Talent.” Michael serves on the Library of Congress’ National Recording Preservation Board, which ensures the future of America’s sound recording heritage.
The most recent album from his multi-platinum recording career is A Michael Feinstein Christmas from Concord Records, featuring Grammy Award-winning jazz pianist Alan Broadbent. Feinstein earned his fifth Grammy Award nomination in 2009 for The Sinatra Project.
His Emmy Award-nominated TV special Michael Feinstein – The Sinatra Legacy, which was taped live at the Palladium in Carmel, IN, aired nationally in 2011. The PBS series “Michael Feinstein’s American Songbook” 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 interviews and performs alongside music luminaries.
Feinstein was named Principal Pops Conductor for the Pasadena Symphony in 2012. He launched an additional Pops series at the Kravis Center in Palm Beach, Florida in 2014. “The Gershwins and Me,” Michael’s book from Simon & Schuster, features a new CD of Gershwin standards.
Feinstein is Artistic Director of the Palladium Center for the Performing Arts, a three-theatre venue in Carmel, Indiana; Artistic Director for Carnegie Hall’s “Standard Time with Michael Feinstein” in conjunction with ASCAP; and Director of the Jazz and Popular Song Series at New York’s Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Lorna Luft (Photo provided by Feinstein’s at the Nikko via The Broadway Blog.)
Lorna Luft is the daughter of Judy Garland and Sid Luft. She made her show business debut at age 11 singing “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” on a Christmas special of her mother’s CBS television series The Judy Garland Show. Siblings Liza Minnelli and Joey Luft also appeared in this episode. Soon Lorna joined the family act on a summer concert tour that included Garland’s third and final appearance at the Palace Theatre on Broadway. The show was recorded live and released on ABC Records as Judy Garland: At Home at the Palace.
Luft’s own theatrical career has included roles on Broadway, in national tours, European and regional theater productions of shows that include The Boy Friend, Promises, Promises; Grease, Carnival, They’re Playing Our Song; Little Shop of Horrors, Mame; Guys and Dolls; Follies; Gypsy; The Wizard of Oz as well as Irving Berlin’s White Christmas.
She released her debut CD “Lorna Luft: Songs My Mother Taught Me” produced by Barry Manilow and her husband, musician Colin Freeman and authored the 1998 book “Me and My Shadows: A Family Memoir.” Luft has toured with the concert Judy: The Songbook of Judy Garland and made a surprise appearance to sing “After You’ve Gone” with Rufus Wainwright at the end of his Carnegie Hall tribute concert commemorating Garland’s celebrated 1961 return to the famed venue.
This year, Lorna has been back on the cabaret scene with a new solo show entitled Accentuate the Positive, as well as guest-starring in An Evening of Movies and Musicals. There’s little evidence of her giving up on what she calls “the family business.” But then, with showbiz in her blood, that probably shouldn’t come as any surprise.
Having a career that spanned over 40 years as an actress and singer, Judy Garland was signed to MGM as a teenager where she starred in dozens of films including “The Wizard of Oz” (1939), “Meet Me in St Louis” (1944), “The Harvey Girls” (1946) and “Easter Parade” (1948) as well as nine movies with costar Mickey Rooney that were known as “backyard musicals” before transitioning to a successful recording and concert career as well as hosting her own Emmy nominated television series on CBS.
Garland’s work has been honored with a Golden Globe Award, a Juvenile Academy Award a Special Tony Award and, at age 39, she became the youngest recipient of the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in the motion picture industry. Garland was also the first woman to win a Grammy for Album of the Year for her live recording of Judy at Carnegie Hall. In 1997 she was posthumously awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and several of her recordings have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Her performance of “Over the Rainbow” is listed as the number one song of the twentieth century by the National Endowment for the Arts and the American Film Institute which also placed her among the ten greatest female stars of classic American cinema.
