Feinstein donates $1 million to music preservation

CARMEL, Ind. (AP) - Vocalist and pianist Michael Feinstein and his spouse Terrence Flannery have donated $1 million to fund the Great American Songbook Initiative, an effort to preserve music from Broadway, Hollywood musicals and the Tin Pan Alley era of the early to mid-twentieth century.

The gift to the Michael Feinstein Great American Songbook Initiative will support efforts to bring the music of the Great American Songbook to young people and to preserve it for future generations. Feinstein works to preserve rare recordings, sheet music and anything related to such music.

Feinstein and Flannery also announced they are donating proceeds from the book The Gershwins and Me by Michael Feinstein to the organization he founded in 2007.

Feinstein is artistic director of the Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel.