Lou Harry
While the announcement of opening-week events for Carmel’s Center for the Performing Arts seems to have been greeted with a resounding “and…?”, let’s celebrate what the center’s artistic director, Michael Feinstein, has already achieved.
I’m talking about his talent-seeking creation, The Great American Songbook High School Academy and Competition.
This year, the second for the GAS battle, more than 100 teens sent in tapes of tunes from the vaguely defined Great American Songbook—songs from roughly the ’20s through the ’60s, when singers and the songwriters were separate and distinct things. During that period—encompassing Tin Pan Alley, Broadway’s golden years, and the big-band era—interpretation was key. Rare was the definitive version of a song. Sure, “Fly Me to the Moon” is identified with Frank Sinatra, but Kaye Ballard, Johnny Mathis and Nat King Cole had at it first. And even after the Chairman of the Board set his vocal chords to it, Tony Bennett, Connie Francis and others took a shot. Nobody called them derivative for doing it.
The 10 finalists this year were chosen to come to Indy to participate in workshops with Feinstein and his fellow judges (including Grammy-winning opera star Sylvia McNair and jazz singer Catherine Russell). These led to the impeccably produced finals program June 5 at the Christel DeHaan Fine Arts Center.
Photo > Teens from five states made the top 10 for the Great American Songbook High School Academy and Competition. The winner: Annie Yokom, 7th from left. (Photo Courtesy Mark Lee
Complete on > http://www.ibj.com/on-a-high-note/PARAMS/article/20477
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