The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • Page D2

D2 SUNDAY, JULY 1, 2012 THE ENQUIRER Feinstein carries Sinatra songbook's torch Ohio native Michael Feinstein began singing at 5. providedzach dobson His Sinatra project, too, is a snapshot of an era. "When a song was popular, many people would perform and record it, unlike today, where there are very few of what they call 'cover' records of a song, because it's now wedded to a specific performance, a sound or a video," he said. The "Chairman of the Board" didn't give him specific advice, "but I listened carefully to everything he said. For him, the lyric is where it started and ended," Feinstein said.

"Because his greatness was in his ability to inhabit the lyric. And of course, the sound of his voice is something seminal. It's like Bing Crosby it's a gift that is indefinable; there's something in the sound of a voice that moves and affects people on a deeper level than other voices." Feinstein, who started singing at age 5, is modest when it comes to his own voice, saying he cringes when he listens to early recordings. "I feel like I've achieved a certain connection with the music that I've always longed to have even though it never ends. The music is what drives me to try and sing better," he said.

Feinstein's latest project is to find the next generation who will continue the legacy. In 2009, he founded a competition for aspiring high school singers. The Michael Feinstein Great American Songbook Initiative is the only U.S. competition devoted solely to music of America's golden age. At Riverbend, he'll have the 2012 winner, 15-year-old Nick Zio-bro, with him onstage for a few American standards.

"I've seen younger generations embrace this music," he said. "So it keeps me very excited in that I know at any show, there will be people there who might never have heard any of these songs Pops performs with standards star By Janelle Gelfand jgelfandenquirer.com Michael Feinstein never tires of discovering, preserving and promoting the songs and songwriters of America's golden age the Great American Songbook. "Keeping passion for what I do is easy, because of the audiences. I'm lucky because people who care about this music come to my shows," said the five-time Grammy-nominated performer by phone from Los Angeles. "I have a career that is, in some ways, stronger now than when I began.

Which is surprising to me, because I thought that in a number of years, most people who cared about this music would be gone." Feinstein, 55, a native of Columbus, returns to his Ohio roots to perform "Sinatra Under the Stars" with the Cincinnati Pops at Riverbend on Saturday. His show will draw from his second Sinatra album, "The Sinatra Project, Vol. II: The Good Life," which pays tribute to OF Blue Eyes and his contemporaries. He'll sing tunes such as "Luck Be a Lady," "Fly Me to the Moon," "Time After Time," "New York, New York," "For Once in My Life" and "a lot of Cole Porter, because Porter was his favorite songwriter," Feinstein said. Feinstein is on a first-name basis with these legends of the American Songbook Frank, Dean, Ira, George, Bing, Rosemary and Tony some of whom he has known personally.

He met Sinatra at age 21, while playing a birthday party for Sinatra's wife, Barbara. Recalling the passing of his good friend Rosemary Clooney, Feinstein said, "It was 10 years ago. She died in June, and I was performing at Riverbend." Clooney's brother, Nick, and IF YOU GO What: Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, John Morris Russell, conductor; Michael Feinstein, vocalist When: 8 p.m. Saturday Where: Riverbend Music Center, 6295 Kellogg Anderson Township Tickets: Start at $20; $25 day of show. Kids under 12 sit free on the lawn.

513-381-3300, www.cincinnatipops.org Many of his discoveries will go into his planned museum in Carmel, where he is artistic director of the Palladium Center for the Performing Arts. The $170 million, three-theater complex opened in 2011. His current PBS special, "The Sinatra Legacy," was taped in the elegant, theater there. "We have a Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame and a Country Music Hall of Fame. But we don't have a place for the Great American Songbook," Feinstein said of his forthcoming museum.

In film, he is producing a movie about the creation of George and Ira Gershwin's opera, "Porgy and Bess," with Cincinnati native Steven Spielberg and Oscar winner Marc Piatt What clinched the deal for Spielberg was the true story of how George Gershwin convinced the National Theater in Washington D.C. to desegregate for a week during the "Porgy and Bess" tour there in 1936. "The struggle (Gershwin) went through to create it is what the movie is about. It looks at so many things that still resonate in our country. It was during the Depression in a time of economic woe.

It's about the races, about antisem-itism (Gershwin was Jewish), about issues that are still as strong today as they were then," Feinstein said. another, either by singing songs connected with her, or telling a story. She was so funny, onstage and off," he said. "She told me the only person whom she felt as comfortable with onstage was Bing Crosby, which was a lovely thing to say." Then he dropped another Cincinnati name. "A week ago, I went to see (opera diva) Kathleen Battle, who's become a good friend, sing at the Blue Note (Jazz Club in New York).

For the second year, she has done a one-night gig singing pop and jazz," he said. "I've met many people who were her teachers and classmates at CCM (University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music)." It's hard to fathom how Feinstein finds time to tour, between recording on his own label, Feinery, a division of Concord, his television, radio and book projects, and his ongoing rescue and archiving of musical treasures. wife Nina were in the audience, and Feinstein and his partner brought them backstage to break the news. The Maysville, "girl singer," who started her singing career with sister Betty on Cincinnati's WLW-AM radio and became one of America's biggest movie stars, lived in Beverly Hills when Feinstein met her. He was the young musical assistant to her next-door neighbor, lyricist Ira Gershwin.

The pianist-singer already had been honing his archival skills with Gershwin. He soon raided Clooney's basement for master tapes of Clooney singing with Bing Crosby in the '50s and other treasures. After a few years, Feinstein and Clooney were performing together. She opened his club, Feinstein's at Loew's Regency in New York in 1999. He performed a tribute to her in 2008 at Music Hall.

"I always include Rosemary in my shows in one way or LOCAL MEDIA Crossword: When Worlds Collide From reporter to professor John KIESEWETTER Award-winning Channel 9 I-Team reporter HagitLimor promises not to quit practicing journalism after her transition to full-time University of Cincinnati teacher in August. "I will never stop reporting. I was born to do this," she said. Limor goes part- A Ji Jl ZjBiL A Ji A JL A ABjL Jl Jl Ji A i a I JH JLJ.H.2. RATE dg1R I iM? jJjB LAY J-H JLJiHTjiJlJjTHMCiil A-kJiJHMi A eJa TLA jTMMTT I MMMM ORE yJMd PBBT RAIT me "sMBwa" esh ry A "eIM ts "olHBMj3" "slMT -M.

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Ji 2L Jl jEHjl JL A Jl JL Jl JjBa .2. .2. Ji Jl BURBANK MAKES RADIO HALL OF FAME Congratulations to Gary Burbank! The former WLW-AM funnyman enters the National Radio Hall of time at WCPO-TV when she becomes an assistant professor for writingjournalism, a tenure track position in the of Music Elec Limor Fame on Nov. 10. Burbank, 70, who retired in 2007, will be inducted at the Chicago Museum of Broadcast Communications Burbank joined Sheree Paolello on WLWT-TV's 11 p.m.

anchor desk. He was hired from Seattle's KOMO-TV in February, two weeks after Channel 5 removed Jack Atherton from the late news. Tanya O'Rourke's tenure as Channel 9 morning anchor is temporary. Anchor Kathrine Nero "will return shortly after taking some time off," Michaelsen said. Around the dial Very special: In his one-hour "Side by Side" special today (noon, Channel 12), reporter Jeff Hirsh tells how World War II veterans John Leahr, who is black, and Herbert Heilbrun, who is white, grew up "10 minutes and two worlds apart" due to segregation.

They didn't discover they were third-grade classmates in Avondale until meeting at an Army reunion in 1997. The Enquirer first told their story in 1998. Bravo, Kunzel: "Erich Kunzel: A Cincinnati Legacy," the 2010 tribute to the late Cincinnati Pops conductor, repeats Wednesday (9:30 p.m., Channel 48), after "A Capitol Fourth" (8 p.m.). Choir Games: Get ready for the World Choir Games with preview specials 8 p.m. today on WGUC-FM (90.9) and 5:30 p.m.

Tuesday on Channel 9. Chat with me: Join me at noon Tuesday for my online chat at Cincinnat.com. Answer Cryptoquip What would you cal a certain Hyundai model when it's being illuminated by nighttime rays? Moonlight Sonata. BARREN WHEEZE SMOOTH PRANCE ACTUAL FICKLE What they would end up calling the humpback king and queen's son THE PRINCE OF "WHALES" with Howard Stern; Dallas DJ Ron Chapman; Southern California "oldies but goodies" DJ Art Laboe; Chicago announcer Jack Cooper; Chattanooga personality Luther Massingill; and public radio's "Fresh Air" show. "It gives me a chance to open for Howard Stern, a lifelong dream," he joked.

"Alphabetically, I come first." Cincinnati Reds announcer Marty Brennaman was elected to the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2005. John Kiesewetter tronic Media Division. Limor immediate past national president of the Society of Professional Journalists and three-time national SPJ award winner -will teach writing and ethics "to the media people of the future. I'll learn as much from them as they learn from me. I'm in heaven.

I'm in a great situation," she said. The Israeli-born Limor has worked 18 years as a Channel 9 reporter and weekend morning anchor (1995-2001). She is married with a son, 7. "She will be a great teacher," says Stuart Zanger, former Channel 9 news director. "It's a great fit for (CCM) and for her.

She's one of the best reporters and writers I've ever worked with." Where does this leave the I-Team? "With Hagit remaining part-time, and the ability to hire her replacement, 9 News will actually increase our commitment to lilfHliNn ll lift ii 1 ii in ffl AM investigation," said Lane Michael-sen, news director. Dardis in at O'Rourke temporary More TV news: As expected, Mike Dardis has MADEA: WITNESS PROTECTION PSI3 11:45 2:15 5:00 7 2 5 9:55 Visit www.ourshowtimes.com For Today's ShowtimesOr Call Our Movie Hotline 947-3333 ALL DLP DIGITAL BRAVE PG ABE UNCOLN SEEKING A FRIEND ROCK OF AGES PG13 THAT'S MY BOY MADAGASCAR3 PG MADAGASCAR 3 IN 3D PG 12:30 25 5:00 7:15 9:25 1:00 3:15 5:30 74510:00 1110 1:10 320 5:30 TM 9:50 11:15 2:00 4: 720 10:00 1130 2:15 5:05 7 35 10:00 1115 1:05 315 5:05 715 9:05 1120 1:20 320 5:20 720 9:20 SWW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN Ftl i 1110 1:30 DARK SHADOWS PG13 1:00 4:15 7:10 9:50 4:00 7:10 9:40 Fairfield grad on Mob Doctor' THEAVENGERS PG13 1:00 4:00 710 10:00 HUNGER GAMES PG13 1:00 4:00 710 9:50 NO PASSES: ABE UNCOLN. MADAGASCAR 3 "SUMMER SPECIAL ALL SHOWS BEFORE NOON $4.00 MONDAY-FRIDAY ONLY ravemotionpictures West Chester 18 513-463-2324 I Florence 14 859-282-7504 I Milford 16 513-248-2847 Western Hills 14 513-574-2048 www.ravemotionpictures.com By John Kiesewetter jkiesewetterenquirer.com Floriana Lima's old classmates at Fairfield High School might be surprised to see her on "The Mob Doctor," a new Fox drama this fall. If she could turn BRAVE 3D "BRAVE 2D (PG) BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL SALMON FISHING IN YEMEN (PG)220710 1210 440 910 (PG-13)T20O 230 50O 730 lOOO (PG-13) 1220 240 505 720 940 aii shows in Sony Digital Cinema' 4K industrial films and a production assistant job at WCMH-TV (Channel 4). Through Heyman she met Lori Noelker Knight, a Hollywood talent manager from Fort Mitchell, who encouraged her to move to Los Angeles in 2006.

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