Michael Feinstein And Storm Large Will Be SHAKEN AND STIRRED - with Classic Songs Reimagined At The McCallum
By: David Green Jan. 23, 2019
Two of McCallum Theatre's favorite artists join forces for the first time to present an unforgettable evening of music on Friday, February 15, at 8:00pm, and Saturday, February 16, at 8:00pm. Accompanied by a 7-piece band inspired by Louis Prima, with music ranging from the Great American Songbook to the music of the James Bond and "Mad Men" era,Michael Feinstein and Storm Large will present a performance of "Shaken and Stirred - Classic Songs Reimagined" with brilliant singing and amusing anecdotes.
The Friday evening performance is presented through the generosity of Barbara Arnstein. The Saturday evening performance is presented through the generosity of Bob Archer and Chuck Hilliar and Robert and Carlyn Stonehill.
Michael Feinstein has built a dazzling career over three decades, bringing the music of the Great American songbook to the world. He has earned five Grammy® nominations, Emmy nominations for his PBS-TV specials, and performed in concerts spanning the globe at such venues as The White House, Buckingham Palace, Hollywood Bowl, Carnegie Hall and Sydney Opera House. His work as an educator and archivist define Michael as one of the most important musical forces of our time.
In 2007, he founded the Great American Songbook Foundation, celebrating the art form and preserving it through educational programs, Master Classes, and the annual High School Songbook Academy. This summer intensive program, open to students nationwide, has produced graduates who have recorded acclaimed albums and appeared on television programs, including "America's Got Talent." Michael serves on the Library of Congress' National Recording Preservation Board, an organization dedicated to the survival, conservation and increased public availability of America's sound recording heritage.
His first recording with a symphony orchestra, Michael Feinstein with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (2001), earned Michael his fourth Grammy nomination. His fifth Grammy nomination came in 2009 for The Sinatra Project, celebrating the music of "Ol' Blue Eyes." His collaboration albums include The Power of Two (2009) with "Glee" and "30 Rock" star Cheyenne Jackson, and Cheek to Cheek (2011) with Broadway legend Barbara Cook. For his CD We Dreamed These Days, he co-wrote the title song with Dr. Maya Angelou. Michael released Change of Heart: The Songs of Andre Previn (2013) in collaboration with four-time Oscar and eleven-time Grammy-winning composer-conductor-pianist Andre Previn. His 2003 album with songwriter Jimmy Webb, Only One Life - The Songs of Jimmy Webb, was named one of "10 Best CDs of the Year" by USA Today. His most recent album, A Michael Feinstein Christmas (2014), featured Grammy-winning jazz pianist Alan Broadbent.
His Emmy-nominated TV special "Michael Feinstein - The Sinatra Legacy," taped live at the Palladium in Carmel, Indiana, aired 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 2014 PBS special, "New Year's Eve at The Rainbow Room," was written and directed by "Desperate Housewives" creator Marc Cherry. In his nationally syndicated public radio program "Song Travels," Michael interviews and performs with music luminaries, including Bette Midler, Neil Sedaka, Liza Minnelli, Rickie Lee Jones, David Hyde Pierce, and more.
Michael was named Principal Pops Conductor for the Pasadena Symphony in 2012 and made his conducting debut to critical acclaim. Under his leadership, the Pasadena Pops became 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 best-selling book The Gershwins and Me features a CD of Gershwin standards performed with Cyrus Chestnut at the piano.
Michael serves as Artistic Director of the Palladium Center for the Performing Arts, a three-theatre venue in Carmel, Indiana, which opened in 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 top pop and jazz talents since 2013. He debuted at Feinstein's/54 Below, his club in New York in 2015. His first venue in New York, Feinstein's at the Regency, featured major entertainers, including Rosemary Clooney, Glen Campbell, Barbara Cook, Diahann Carroll, Jane Krakowski, Lea Michele, Cyndi Lauper, Jason Mraz and Alan Cumming from 1999 to 2012.
Michael designed a 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 Reagan centennial in 2011.
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. The widow of Oscar Levant introduced him to Ira Gershwin in 1977. He became Gershwin's assistant for six years, earning access to unpublished Gershwin songs, many of which he has since performed and recorded. Gershwin's influence provided a solid base upon which Michael evolved into a captivating performer and composer and arranger of his own original music. He also became an unparalleled interpreter of music legends such as Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Johnny Mercer, Duke Ellington and Harry Warren.
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), Michael Feinstein is an all-star force in American music.
Storm Large: musician, actor, playwright, author, awesome. She shot to national prominence in 2006 as a finalist on the CBS' "Rock Star: Supernova." Despite having been eliminated in the week before the finale, Storm built a fan base that follows her around the world to this day.
Storm spent the 90s singing in clubs throughout San Francisco. Tired of the club scene, she moved to Portland to pursue a new career as a chef. A last minute cancellation in 2002 at the Portland club Dante's turned into a standing Wednesday night engagement for Storm and her new band The Balls. It wasn't long before Storm had a cult-like following in Portland, and a renewed singing career that was about to be launched onto the international stage.
=Storm made her debut as guest vocalist with the band Pink Martini in 2011, singing four sold-out concerts with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center. She continues to perform with the band, touring nationally and internationally, and she was featured on their CD Get Happy. Storm has also sung with Grammy winner k.d. lang, pianist Kirill Gerstein, punk rocker John Doe, singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright, and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer George Clinton.
She debuted with the Oregon Symphony in 2010, and has returned for sold out performances each year. Storm made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2013, singing Weill's Seven Deadly Sins with the Detroit Symphony as part of the Spring for Music festival. The New York Times called her "sensational," and the classical music world instantly had a new star.
In 2007, Storm took a career departure and starred in Portland Center Stage's production ofCabaret with Wade McCollum. The show was a smash, earning Storm glowing reviews. Her next endeavor, the autobiographical musical memoir Crazy Enough played to packed houses in 2009 during its unprecedented 21-week sold-out run in Portland. Storm went on to perform a cabaret version of the show to critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Adelaide Festival in Australia, and Joe's Pub in New York. Her memoir Crazy Enough was released in 2012, named Oprah's Book of the Week, and awarded the 2013 Oregon Book Award for Creative Nonfiction.
Storm is featured in Rid of Me, a film by Portlander James Westby, starring Katie O'Grady and Theresa Russell. In November and December of 2010, she starred at the Mark Taper Forum with Katey Sagal and Michael McKean in Jerry Zaks' production of Harps and Angels, a musical featuring the work of Randy Newman. In the 2013/14 season Storm and her band Le Bonheur performed in cities around the country, including Las Vegas, Boston, and Minneapolis in an evening called "Taken By Storm." In 2014, she appeared at the Ojai Festival with the new orchestra The Knights and the vocal ensemble Hudson Shad. Later that summer, she debuted at the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago. In 2014, Storm and Le Bonheur released a record designed to capture their sublime and subversive interpretations of the American Songbook. Entitled simply Le Bonheur and released on Pink Martini's Heinz Records, the recording is a collection of tortured and titillating love songs; beautiful, familiar, yet twisted, much like the lady herself.
Recent and upcoming engagements include performing with The New York Pops Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, The Cincinnati Symphony, The Houston Symphony, and The RTE Concert Orchestra in Dublin, amongst others. Storm is also busy creating a new musical with The Public Theater in New York City.
Tickets for these performances are priced at $128, $98, $88 and $68. Tickets are available at the Theatre's website at www.mccallumtheatre.com or by calling the McCallum Theatre Box Office at (760) 340-2787.
Comments
Videos