Great American Songbook Winner to Perform National Anthem at Colts Game, 12/14
By: Tyler Peterson Dec. 10, 2014
Maddie Baillio, the 2014 winner of the Great American Songbook Academy will perform the National Anthem at the Dec. 14 Colts game at Lucas Oil Stadium. The 18-year-old from League City, Texas was the winner in the 2014 competition, held at the Palladium concert hall in July. In addition to the Colts game performance, Baillio will debut at New York City's Birdland jazz club on December 16, performing alongside Michael Feinstein, founder of the Great American Songbook Foundation and artistic director at the Center for the Performing Arts. Baillio is the Great American Songbook Youth Ambassador, a one year title.
"I created the Songbook Academy to foster young artists who have an interest in the American Songbook, which includes the music of classic Broadway, Jazz standards, and popular music. We are reaching a new generation to teach the music of the American Songbook and the history that inspired and influenced its composers," said Michael Feinstein, founder of the program and the organization called the Great American Songbook Foundation. Baillio is now a freshman at Marymount Manhattan College in New York City, where she studies theatre. She has sung tunes from the Songbook recorded by Etta James and Betty Hutton among others, and was drawn to the music because the lyrics and melodies were so genuine and truthful. She believes the music has staying power because there is so much heart and wit written into each lyric. Baillio joined eleven other high school vocalists at the week-long academy, held in the Indiana city of Carmel. The annual event is sponsored by the Great American Songbook Foundation and is the only U.S. high school program dedicated solely to the music from Broadway, Hollywood musicals and the Tin Pan Alley era of the early to mid-twentieth century.Comments
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