In 2007, Grammy-nominated performer Michael Feinstein founded the Michael Feinstein Foundation for the Preservation and Education of the Great American Songbook, now known as the Great American Songbook Foundation. A longtime collector of materials related to Broadway and Hollywood musicals of the 1920s-1960s, Feinstein was concerned that no single organization existed to preserve these materials. mayor James Brainard donated office space at the for the organization’s headquarters.
In 2011, the foundation began a professional affiliation with the Center for the Performing Arts to benefit from the entertainment venue’s administrative staff and to allow it access to the Songbook Foundation’s national audience. The foundation maintains its separate 501c3 nonprofit status.
The organization fulfills its mission to inspire and educate by celebrating the Great American Songbook through a variety of programs. The archives and library make the papers of lyricist Gus Kahn, composer Meredith Willson, and others, as well as books and recording formats, accessible to researchers around the world.
Exhibits in the foundation’s gallery and traveling exhibits highlight the cultural significance of the songwriters and the music they created. The Songbook Academy, a week-long summer intensive, provides educational opportunities for high school students from across the nation. Perfect Harmony utilizes the power of music to promote holistic well-being for individuals living with dementia. In 2017, the Grammy Museum named the Songbook Foundation a cultural affiliate due to its like-minded approach to arts education and outreach.
In 2018, Bren Simon donated her 107-acre Carmel estate, Asherwood, valued at $30 million, to the foundation with no restrictions. The Songbook Foundation’s board sold the property in early 2021. The exact sale price, however, was not disclosed, but a spokesperson for the Foundation stated that it was “an impressive sum of money” that will be used to create an endowment to fund a museum to expand its programming and collections.
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