Michael Jay Feinstein (born September 7, 1956) is an American singer, pianist, and music revivalist . He is an archivist and interpreter for the repertoire known as the Great American Songbook . In 1988, he won a Drama Desk Special Award for celebrating American musical theatre songs. Feinstein is also a multi-platinum-selling, five-time Grammy-nominated recording artist. He is the artistic director for The Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel, Indiana .
44-759: Feinstein was born in Columbus, Ohio, the son of Florence Mazie (née Cohen), an amateur tap dancer, and Edward Feinstein, a sales executive for the Sara Lee Corporation and a former amateur singer. He is Jewish. At the age of 5, he studied piano for a couple of months until his teacher became angered that he was not reading the sheet music she gave him, since he was more comfortable playing by ear. As his mother saw no problem with her son's method, she took him out of lessons and allowed him to enjoy music his own way. After graduating from high school, Feinstein worked in local piano bars for two years, moving to Los Angeles when he
88-402: A $ 46 million political campaign (equivalent to $ 60.4 million in 2023) known as "The Coalition Against The Costly Food Labeling Proposition, sponsored by Farmers and Food Producers". This organization was set up to oppose a California citizen's initiative, known as Proposition 37 , demanding mandatory labeling of foods containing genetically modified ingredients . The Sara Lee Foundation
132-495: A Change of Heart". On October 31, 2014, Feinstein's Michael Feinstein at the Rainbow Room premiered on PBS, with guest stars. The special is part of the 2014 PBS Arts Fall Festival, a primetime program with 11 weekly programs of classic Broadway hits and music as well as some award-winning theater performances. Feinstein has appeared numerous times as a presenter on Turner Classic Movies. After cohosting with Robert Osborne for
176-404: A binding offer for its Global Body Care and European Detergents to Unilever for €1.275 billion (equivalent to €1.71 billion in 2023). On June 1, 2010, Sara Lee announced it had completed the sale of its 51 percent stake in its Godrej Sara Lee joint venture to Godrej Consumer Products Ltd. for a total consideration of €185 million (equivalent to €249 million in 2023). On June 15, 2010,
220-450: A business to success with no new products and no growth plan". Also, Marcel Smits, interim CEO since Barnes suffered a stroke , became the new CEO, and Jan Bennink director and chairman. The split was completed on July 4, 2012. The successor company, Hillshire Brands, re-located its headquarters from Downers Grove to Chicago in 2012. In 2014, Hillshire, along with the Sara Lee operations,
264-534: A cabaret performer parodied in the third season of Mystery Science Theater 3000 , which covered the Kaiju movie Gamera vs. Guiron . At the episode's close, Feinstein, played by the show's head writer Michael J. Nelson , sang a cabaret version of the Gamera theme song to the characters Dr. Clayton Forrester and TV's Frank . In the early 1990s, Feinstein embarked on a songbook project where he performed an album featuring
308-514: A friendship lasting until Clooney's death. Feinstein served as musical consultant for the 1983 Broadway show My One and Only , a musical pastiche of Gershwin tunes. By the mid-1980s, Feinstein was a nationally known cabaret singer-pianist famed for being a proponent of the Great American Songbook . In 1986, he recorded his first CD, Pure Gershwin (1987), a collection of music by George and Ira Gershwin. He followed this with Live at
352-575: A night in January 2015, he returned to the channel as a guest host in August 2016 and December 2017. In October 2008, Feinstein married his longtime partner Terrence Flannery. The ceremony was performed by family court and television judge Judith Sheindlin , also known as Judge Judy . Feinstein and Flannery have homes in New York, Los Angeles, and Indiana. Sara Lee Corporation The Sara Lee Corporation
396-441: A restructuring at Sara Lee. 2006 featured the divestiture of Sara Lee's European meats and European branded apparel businesses. In addition, the corporation spun off to its shareholders the branded apparel, Americas/Asia, business, into a separate, publicly traded company called Hanesbrands Inc. Including the spin-off, Sara Lee raised more than $ 3.7 billion in proceeds as part of the company's transformation plan. In addition to
440-431: A separate unit named D.E Master Blenders 1753. Some analysts claimed splitting the business into two units would make a takeover more likely. Stockholders would have equal shares in both companies. In the same month, Sara Lee received noted media attention regarding their strategy to "refocus on the core" to revamp the company. In a Forbes magazine column, Adam Hartung stated Sara Lee could not "cost-cut, refocus or re-align
484-531: A small chain of Chicago neighborhood bakeries called Community Bake Shops. Working together, the businessmen expanded their original three stores into a chain of seven bakeries. Lubin wanted to expand the business. He named a cream cheesecake after his eight-year-old daughter, Sara Lee Lubin, and changed the name of the business to Kitchens of Sara Lee . In 1956, the Consolidated Foods Corporation bought Kitchens of Sara Lee, and it became one of
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#1732869936362528-514: A state-of-the-art research and development center named The Kitchens of Sara Lee, a 120,000-square-foot (11,000 m ) campus at the company's headquarters in Downers Grove. On September 25, 2009, Sara Lee announced it accepted a binding offer by Unilever for €1.275 billion to sell its global body care and European detergents business. The transaction was approved by EU regulators in November of
572-601: The Library of Congress appointed Feinstein to the National Recording Preservation Board , an organization dedicated to safeguarding America's musical heritage. In 2008, The Great American Songbook Foundation , founded by Feinstein, located its headquarters in Carmel, Indiana. The foundation's mission includes the preservation, research, and exhibition of the physical artifacts, both published and non-published, of
616-1026: The Pasadena POPS in 2012 and made his conducting debut in June 2013. In 2016, Feinstein's contract with the Pasadena POPS was extended through 2019. Feinstein's memoir The Gershwins and Me: A Personal History in Twelve Songs about working for Ira Gershwin was published in Fall 2012, accompanied by a CD of Feinstein's performing the Gershwin brothers' music discussed in the book. In April 2013, Feinstein released Change Of Heart: The Songs of André Previn , (Concord) in collaboration with composer-conductor-pianist André Previn , with an album celebrating Previn's repertoire from his catalog of pop songs that have most commonly been featured in motion pictures. The album opens with "(You've Had)
660-488: The $ 170-million, three-theater venue was completed in January 2011. The center is home to an annual international arts festival, diverse live programming, and The Great American Songbook Foundation. In 2009, Feinstein teamed with Cheyenne Jackson to create a nightclub act titled "The Power of Two". The show was hailed by The New York Times as "passionate", "impeccably harmonized" and "groundbreaking". Variety acclaimed it as "dazzlingly entertaining". Their act became one of
704-744: The Algonquin (1986); Remember: Michael Feinstein Sings Irving Berlin (1987); Isn't It Romantic (1988), a collection of standards and his first album backed by an orchestra; and Over There (1989), featuring the music of America and Europe during the First World War. Feinstein recorded Pure Imagination , his only children's album, in 1992. In the 1987 episode "But Not for Me" of the TV series thirtysomething , he sang " But Not for Me ", " Love Is Here to Stay " and Isn't It Romantic? . By 1988, Feinstein
748-466: The Great American Songbook and educating today's youth about the music's relevance to their lives. The foundation houses an archive and reference library; plans exist for a free-standing museum. The organization also holds an annual Great American Songbook Vocal Academy and Competition that invites high school students to compete in regional competitions; Feinstein has been a judge and mentor for
792-688: The Sara Lee brand is owned by Kohlberg & Company , making frozen cakes and other items at its present facility in Illinois. Sara Lee is also the brand name of a number of frozen and packaged foods, often known for the long-running slogan "Everybody doesn't like something, but nobody doesn't like Sara Lee", often incorrectly reported as "Nobody does it like Sara Lee". As of 2005, Sara Lee Corporation had operations in more than 40 countries; sold food, beverage, and household products in over 180 countries; and had some 137,000 employees worldwide. In 1935, Charles Lubin and his brother-in-law, Arthur Gordon, bought
836-572: The agreement stressed that Sara Lee's Bil Mar Foods division did not knowingly distribute the tainted meat. On August 7, 2001, Sara Lee Corp cleared the last remaining regulatory hurdle in its purchase of Earthgrains Co, receiving approval from the European Commission (S). Brenda C. Barnes joined Sara Lee Corporation in July 2004 as the president and chief operating officer. Then in February 2005, Barnes
880-459: The company announced that it had received a binding offer of $ 153.5 million (equivalent to $ 209 million in 2023) for its remaining insecticides business. The offer is dependent on European Union antitrust approval; the decision is due May 2, 2011. On July 5, 2010, Sara Lee completed the sale of its Ambi Pur air care business to Procter & Gamble for €320 million (equivalent to €412 million in 2023). On April 4, 2011, Sara Lee completed
924-568: The company's best-known brand names. In 1985, the name Sara Lee Corporation was adopted for the corporation as a whole. While the company traced its lineage to 1939, when Nathan Cummings acquired C. D. Kenny Company, a wholesale distributor of sugar, coffee, and tea in Baltimore, Consolidated Foods Corporation was actually the descendant of a Chicago grocery store called Sprague, Warner & Company. This enterprise, which started on State Street in Chicago,
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#1732869936362968-474: The following year. On November 9, 2010, Sara Lee said that by selling its North American Fresh Bakery unit to Grupo Bimbo , it could grow in other areas. The $ 959 million deal gave Sara Lee the right to continue using the Sara Lee name on frozen desserts and meat products. Grupo Bimbo was to use the Sara Lee name for fresh-baked products around the world except for Western Europe , Australia and New Zealand . The deal also gave Grupo Bimbo 41 baking plants, and
1012-414: The kosher meat business and discontinue processing and distributing products made under all of its kosher meat brands, including: Best's Kosher, Sinai Kosher, Shofar and Wilno. As of early 2019, certain Sara Lee bread and other baked goods products, which had dropped some kosher certifications in 2017, restored them. Throughout 2012, Sara Lee contributed $ 343,600 (equivalent to $ 450,869 in 2023) to
1056-492: The largest grocery wholesaler in the United States. Annual sales grew from about $ 20 million in 1942 to $ 120 million by 1946. After changing its name in 1945 to Consolidated Grocers, Cummings's company became the Consolidated Foods Corporation in 1953. In 1986, Sara Lee bought the manufacturing and mail order operations of Wolferman's, a maker of English muffins , that dated back to 1888. In February 1988, Sara Lee agreed to
1100-655: The late 1990s, Feinstein recorded two more albums of Gershwin music: Nice Work If You Can Get It: Songs by the Gershwins (1996) and Michael & George: Feinstein Sings Gershwin (1998). Feinstein's albums in the 21st century have included Romance on Film, Romance on Broadway (2000), Michael Feinstein with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (2001), Hopeless Romantics (2005, featuring George Shearing ), and The Sinatra Project (2008). In 2000,
1144-422: The monetary benefits, the company became tightly focused on its core businesses: food, beverage, and household and body care. In 2008, Sara Lee sold off its Direct Store Delivery foodservice coffee business to Farmer Brothers for a reported $ 45 million. By 2009, Sara Lee was pursuing the sale of its household and body care business in their continuing effort to focus on core business. In April, Sara Lee launched
1188-553: The most critically acclaimed shows of 2009, and the duo created a studio album from the material, titled The Power of Two , and it included their cover of the Indigo Girls song of the same name. In 2010, PBS aired Michael Feinstein's American Songbook , a three-part television documentary that depicts the history of the American popular song up to 1960 as well as Feinstein's own life and career. As of June 2011, Feinstein has written
1232-638: The music of a featured composer, often accompanied by the composer. These included collaborations with Burton Lane (two volumes: 1990, 1992), Jule Styne (1991), Jerry Herman ( Michael Feinstein Sings the Jerry Herman Songbook , 1993), Hugh Martin (1995), Jimmy Webb ( Only One Life: The Songs of Jimmy Webb , 2003) and Jay Livingston / Ray Evans (2002). He has also recorded three albums of standards with Maynard Ferguson : Forever (1993), Such Sweet Sorrow (1995), and Big City Rhythms (1999). In
1276-419: The purchase of the 84-year-old Adams-Millis Corporation of High Point, North Carolina , the largest private label sock and stocking manufacturer in the United States, with 3000 employees and 1987 sales of nearly $ 200 million. On June 25, 2001, Sara Lee Corp pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and agreed to pay $ 4.4 million for selling tainted meat that was blamed for at least 15 deaths and six miscarriages in 1998;
1320-517: The regional brands Grandma Sycamore's, Heiner's and Rainbo. On January 28, 2011, Sara Lee announced the company would be split into two units. The company said its North American operations (including Jimmy Dean, Ball Park and Hillshire Farm) would take the Hillshire Brands corporate name, while the international beverage and bakery businesses (including Douwe Egberts, Senseo, Pickwick, Maison du Café, L'OR, Café Pilão, and Marcilla) would constitute
1364-961: The sale of its Kiwi shoe care business to SC Johnson for €245 million (equivalent to €315 million in 2023). In 2010, Sara Lee completed the sale of White King and Janola brands to Symex for €38 million (equivalent to €50.3 million in 2023). In addition, Sara Lee announced the pending sale of its non-Indian insecticides business to SC Johnson for €153.5 million. In 2010, Sara Lee divested its North American fresh bakery business to Grupo Bimbo . In 2012, Hillshire Brands sold its Australian bakery operations to McCain Foods . On November 19, 2008, Sara Lee Corporation, which had acquired "the No. 2 kosher hot dog brand" in 1993, announced that it would close its kosher hot dog and meat processing facility in Chicago , on or before January 30, 2009. Sara Lee decided to exit
Michael Feinstein - Misplaced Pages Continue
1408-411: The score for two new stage musicals, The Night They Saved Macy's Parade and The Gold Room . His Manhattan nightclub, Feinstein's at Loews Regency New York, presented the top talent of pop and jazz from 1999 to 2012, including Rosemary Clooney , Liza Minnelli , Glen Campbell , Barbara Cook , Diahann Carroll , Jane Krakowski , Lea Michele , Cyndi Lauper , Jason Mraz and Alan Cumming . The club
1452-458: The summer intensive each year from its inception in 2009. Finalists gather at the foundation's headquarters for a vocal "boot camp" and final competition. The winner receives scholarship money and the opportunity to perform with Michael at his cabaret in New York. In 2009, Feinstein became the artistic director of The Center for the Performing Arts. located in Carmel, Indiana. Construction of
1496-401: The voluntary step due to low trading volumes on those exchanges. 2005 also saw the debut of Sara Lee Soft & Smooth made with whole grain white bread. In October, Barnes succeeded C. Steven McMillan as chairman. The year ended with the sale of the direct selling business to Tupperware . In 2006, Sara Lee announced a new company wide campaign: "the joy of eating". The campaign was part of
1540-456: The world. To support that focus, Sara Lee announced plans to dispose of approximately 40 percent of the company's revenues, including its apparel, European packaged meats, US retail coffee and direct selling businesses. On December 22, 2005, Sara Lee Corporation was to delist from Euronext Amsterdam and Euronext Paris stock exchanges, as well as the Swiss Exchange. The company said it was taking
1584-736: Was acquired by Tyson Foods . On June 1, 2018, Tyson announced that it would sell the Sara Lee, Van's, Chef Pierre and Bistro Collection brands to Kohlberg & Company . The sale was completed on August 1, forming Sara Lee Frozen Bakery, which will be based in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois . Sara Lee Corporation announced in 2006 that it had completed the sale of its branded apparel business in Europe to an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners . Such brands included Dim, Playtex , Wonderbra , Lovable, Abanderado, Nur Die, Unno and Bellinda. Sara Lee Corporation announced on Sept 28, 2009, that it had received
1628-550: Was age 20. Through the widow of concert pianist-actor Oscar Levant , he was introduced in 1977 to Ira Gershwin , who hired him to catalogue his extensive collection of phonograph records. The assignment led to six years of researching, cataloguing and preserving the unpublished sheet music and rare recordings in Gershwin's home, Ira's works but also those of his composer brother George Gershwin . During Feinstein's years with Gershwin, he also got to know Gershwin's next-door neighbor, singer Rosemary Clooney , with whom Feinstein formed
1672-699: Was an American consumer-goods company based in Downers Grove, Illinois . On July 4, 2012, Sara Lee Corporation was split into two companies: one for North American operations renamed Hillshire Brands (the Sara Lee name continued to be used on bakery and certain deli products distributed by Hillshire Brands), the other for international beverage and bakery businesses named D.E Master Blenders 1753 . It had operations in more than 40 countries and sold its products in over 180 countries. Its international operations were headquartered in Utrecht , The Netherlands . As of 2020 ,
1716-703: Was closed in December 2012 due to a year-long complete renovation of the Regency Hotel. Feinstein opened the nightclub Feinstein's at the Nikko in San Francisco's Nikko Hotel in May 2013. In 2015, he entered into a creative partnership with the founders of 54 Below , located in the basement of New York’s Studio 54 , and they rebranded the nightclub Feinstein's/54 Below until their partnership ended in 2022. From 2012 to 2015, Feinstein
1760-519: Was founded during the Civil War by Albert A. Sprague and Ezra J. Warner. By 1909, Sprague, Warner & Company was one of the leading wholesale grocery companies in the United States, famous for house brands such as Richelieu, Ferndell, and Batavia. In 1942, this company was acquired by the Canadian-born Cummings. The new Chicago-based company, at first called Sprague Warner–Kenny Corp., ranked as
1804-484: Was founded in 1981 to formalize Sara Lee's dedication to community services. Romance on Film, Romance on Broadway Romance on Film, Romance on Broadway is a 2000 album by American vocalist Michael Feinstein arranged by Alan Broadbent and John Oddo . It was Feinstein's third album for the Concord label. The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow awarded the album four and a half stars and said "Feinstein's voice
Michael Feinstein - Misplaced Pages Continue
1848-461: Was named president and chief executive officer, and the corporation announced it would move its headquarters from Cincinnati , Ohio, to Downers Grove, Illinois , which housed the company's North American operating businesses and the majority of Sara Lee's corporate staff. Also in February 2005, the company began executing a multi-year plan to transform Sara Lee into a company focused on its food, beverage, and household and body care businesses around
1892-584: Was starring on Broadway in a series of in-concert shows: Michael Feinstein in Concert (April through June 1988), Michael Feinstein in Concert: "Isn't It Romantic" (October through November 1988), and Michael Feinstein in Concert: Piano and Voice (October 1990). He returned to Broadway in 2010, in a concert special duo with Dame Edna titled All About Me (March through April 2010). 1991 saw Feinstein's persona as
1936-417: Was the host of the weekly, one-hour radio program Song Travels with Michael Feinstein , produced by South Carolina ETV Radio and distributed by NPR. On the program, Feinstein explored the legendary songs of 20th century America. The series surveys the passage of American popular song throughout the American landscape, evolving with each artist and performance. Feinstein was named Principal Pops Conductor for
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