Great American Songbook Foundation


The Great American Songbook Foundation is a 501 nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the music of the Great American Songbook. The Songbook Foundation's administrative offices and Songbook Exhibit Gallery are located on the Gallery level of Payne & Mencias Palladium at Allied Solutions Center for Performing Arts in Carmel, Indiana. The Songbook Library & Archives are housed offsite nearby.
Previously known as the Feinstein Foundation for the Education and Preservation of the Great American Songbook and as the Michael Feinstein Great American Songbook Initiative, the organization took its current name in 2014.
The Songbook Foundation's mission is "to inspire and educate by celebrating the music of the Great American Songbook."
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History and operation

Michael Feinstein founded the organization in 2007. Upon Feinstein's appointment as artistic director of Allied Solutions Center for the Performing Arts in 2009, the organization made a commitment to move its headquarters and archives on the center's campus in Carmel, Indiana.
The Great American Songbook Foundation's administrative headquarters houses a reference library, study and listening rooms for researchers, archival storage space, and the Songbook Exhibit Gallery, an exhibit space featuring rotating interactive presentations about the music, its creators and the performers of the Great American Songbook.
In 2023, the Songbook Foundation announced its agreement with the City of Carmel to open a stand-alone music museum.

Education and outreach

The Songbook Academy

The Songbook Academy is an educational summer music intensive held by the Great American Songbook Foundation. Formerly known as the High School Vocal Academy and Competition, the program originated in 2009 and trains cohorts of up to 40 high school vocalists annually. The Songbook Foundation states on its website, "At the Songbook Academy, we believe that every young singer has a unique story to tell through music."
The Songbook Academy has undergone significant evolution since its founding. During its inception, the program invited high school students to compete in regional competitions to culminate in a final competition at the Songbook Foundation's headquarters. The program changed in 2015 to accommodate 40 students in a single location at Allied Solutions Center for the Performing Arts. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the program temporarily transitioned to an online format in 2020, eliminating its competitive element. The summer intensive has maintained a non-competitive focus on education since resuming in-person programming in 2022.
Winners of the earlier competition format were commemorated as Great American Songbook Youth Ambassadors. Each Youth Ambassador won a $3,000 scholarship and a trip to New York City to perform alongside Michael Feinstein. Today, the Songbook Foundation celebrates the professional growth of each student by providing alumni avenues to share achievements and coordinating additional networking and performance opportunities.
WinnerHometownYearRef.
Julia BonnettCarmel, Indiana2009
Annie YokomNaperville, Illinois2010
event on hiatus2011
Nick ZiobroManlius, New York2012
Julia GoodwinBaldwinsville, New York2013
Maddie BaillioLeague City, Texas2014
Lucas DeBardLebanon, Indiana2015
Brighton ThomasBurbank, California2016
Finn SagalLa Cañada Flintridge, California2017
Lily RasmussenLexington, Kentucky2018
Sadie FridleySyracuse, New York2019

Songbook Hall of Fame

The Great American Songbook Hall of Fame is a tribute to people who have contributed to the genre, memorializing composers, performers, and lyricists who have added to the history of the Songbook. Artists are nominated and selected based on the following criteria:Legend Award: Artists who made a significant contribution to the Golden Age of American popular music, typically defined as the period from the early years of the Twentieth century through the 1960s;Songbook Award: Living songwriters, both lyricists and composers, who have made a significant impact on American pop culture by creating the most beloved songs from the American popular songbook; andNew Standard Award: Artists, songwriters and/or performers who continues to create the soundtrack of our lives by writing and/or performing music that will become the pop standards of tomorrow."
In the past, the Songbook Foundation and Allied Solutions Center for the Performing Arts hosted live performances in celebration of the lives and careers of the artists selected for induction into the Great American Songbook Hall of Fame. Nominees, or their representatives, were invited to Carmel and honored with tribute performances celebrating their achievements. In recent years, the Songbook Hall of Fame has evolved into an online educational resource for fans around the world with programming to celebrate inductees hosted virtually and in-person year round.
ArtistYears ActiveAwardYearArea of AchievementRef.
Barry Manilow1964–presentNew Standard Award2012Creator of ten chart-topping singles and five best-selling albums in the 1970s, while simultaneously producing albums for Bette Midler, Nancy Wilson (jazz singer), and Dionne Warwick.
Cole Porter1920s–1958Legend Award2012Composer and lyricist of several successful Broadway shows and films, such as Paris (1928) and Kiss Me, Kate (1948)
Rita Moreno1943–presentNew Standard Award2013
Liza Minnelli1949–presentNew Standard Award2013
Jimmy Webb1965–presentSongbook Award2013
Frank Sinatra1935–1995Legend Award2013
Alan and Marilyn Bergman1950s–2017Songbook Award2014Longstanding career of more than 50 years. Recipients of sixteen Academy Awards, two Grammy Awards, three Emmy Awards, and one Ace Award.
Johnny Mathis1956–presentSongbook Award2014
Shirley Jones1950–presentNew Standard Award2014
Linda Ronstadt1965–2011New Standard Award2014
Nat King Cole1934–1965Legend Award2014
Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gormé1950–2019New Standard Award2015
Chita Rivera1950–2024New Standard Award2015
George Gershwin & Ira Gershwin1910s–1950sLegend Award2015
Diahann Carroll1950–2016New Standard Award2016
Dionne Warwick1955–presentNew Standard Award2016
Hoagy Carmichael1918–1981Legend Award2016
Ray Gilbert1940s–1960sLegend Award2017
Mitzi Gaynor1944–2021New Standard Award2017
Ella Fitzgerald1934–1993Legend Award2017
Marilyn Maye1946–presentNew Standard Award2018
Jimmy Van Heusen1930s–1970sLegend Award2018
Rosemary Clooney1946–2002Legend Award2018
Paul Williams1964–presentSongbook Award2019
Duke Ellington1914–1974Legend Award2019
Doris Day1939–2012Legend Award2019
Tony Bennett1936–2021New Standard Award2019
Meredith Willson1921−1982Songbook Award2020
Peggy Lee1936–2000Songbook Award2020
Billy Strayhorn1934–1964Legend Award2021
Melissa Manchester1971–presentNew Standard Award2021
Sammy Cahn1935–1982Legend Award2021
Straight No Chaser1996–2000
2008–present		New Standard Award2022
The Manhattan Transfer1969–2023New Standard Award2022
The Lennon Sisters1955–presentNew Standard Award2022
Judy Garland1924–1969Legend Award2023

GRAMMY Museum Cultural Affiliation

In July 2017, the Los Angeles-based Grammy Museum announced that the Great American Songbook Foundation has been designated as a Cultural Affiliate, joining four other institutions worldwide: the Bob Marley Museum in Kingston, Jamaica; the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa, OH; The Beatles Story in Liverpool, UK; and the National Blues Museum in St. Louis, MO. The relationships allows for collaboration between the organizations on exhibits and educational and research programs, among other amenities.

Perfect Harmony Music Program

Founded in 2015, the Songbook Foundation's Perfect Harmony program offers music activities to people with Alzheimer's, dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases. This program was initially launched in collaboration with the Greater Indiana Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association. and has since evolved to independently offer monthly resources online. Each Perfect Harmony resource is designed for participants and caregivers to become involved in social singing, discussions, and low-impact movement exercises to a thematic selection of popular music. As a group, people share experiences related to memorable songs and the monthly theme.

Songbook Film Series

The Great American Songbook Foundation partnered with Indianapolis-based Heartland International Film Festival to present classic movie musicals to the public, cultivating a new generation of movie lovers. Some screenings included guest speakers, who enlightened audiences on the nature and creation of the movies shown.

Archives, library, and preservation

The Songbook Library & Archives serves as a repository for the papers of significant Songbook figures including Meredith Willson, Hy Zaret, and Gus Kahn, as well as special collections covering such artists as The Andrews Sisters, spanning a range of formats: sheet music, photos, scrapbooks, posters, music magazines, books, LPs, 45s, lacquer disc, personal papers, theatre playbills, film, video, analog tape, and recordings. Many items in the collection are now a hundred years old.
The Songbook Foundation's non-circulating research library houses a wide variety of reference materials. Students, teachers, and researchers from around the world access the Archives website to view and research over one hundred collections, 35,000 pieces of sheet music, and 3,000 reference books.
Items in the Songbook Foundation Archives include: