Great American Songbook Foundation

The Songbook Exhibit Gallery is located in the Foundation's administrative headquarters in Carmel, Indiana.

The Songbook Exhibit Gallery features rotating exhibits. These exhibits helps guests to place the music of this era in context with the events that occurred in the 20th-century United States. The Songbook Foundation offers corresponding educational programs and guided tours for school groups, civic and professional organizations, and members of the general public.

Since 2011, the Songbook Foundation has presented the following exhibits: "The Great American Songbook" (2011), "G.I. Jive: The Music and Entertainers of World War II" (2012), "Blast from the Past: Roaring Hot '20s Jazz" (2013), "A Change Is Gonna Come: 1960s Broadway Musicals" (2014), "Gus Kahn: The Man Behind the Music" (2015), and "The Great Indiana Songbook: Two Centuries of Hoosier Music" (2016). The exhibit now on display is "Ella Sings the Songbook", celebrating Ella Fitzgerald's 100th birthday and commemorating her more than fifty-year career, much of which was spent performing music from the Great American Songbook. In particular, the exhibit highlights the series of eight albums of Songbook music sung by Ella under the direction of Norman Granz and issued by Verve Records.[4] These exhibits focus on different time periods, styles, and artists.[5] In addition to the interactive display which houses clips and short biographies of over four decades of singers and songwriters, artifacts from the Songbook Archives that relate to the music and musicians being highlighted in the Songbook Gallery exhibits are displayed.[6]

Songbook Academy founder Michael Feinstein and Grammy-winner Cheryl Bentyne of The Manhattan Transfer coaching participants in the 2014 Songbook Academy

The Songbook Academy Summer Intensive, formerly known as the High School Vocal Academy and Competition, originated in 2009 and is held annually in July. The program is "the only vocal competition based solely on music from Broadway, Hollywood musicals and the Tin Pan Alley era."[7]

Recent Songbook Academy finalists have performed in major venues in Las Vegas, Pasadena, New York City, Costa Mesa, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco. In June 2016, Maddie Baillio was cast as Tracy Turnblad in NBC's production of Hairspray Live!.[8]

Great American Songbook Youth Ambassadors:

• 2009: Julia Bonnett[9]
• 2010: Annie Yokom[10]
• 2011: event on hiatus
• 2012: Nick Ziobro[11]
• 2013: Julia Goodwin[12]
• 2014: Madelyn Baillio[13]
• 2015: Lucas DeBard[14]
• 2016: Brighton Thomas[15]
• 2017: Finn Sagal[16]

The Great American Songbook Hall of Fame exhibit is housed in the Shiel Sexton Songbook Lounge at The Palladium.

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.[17] Artists are nominated and selected based on the following criteria:

• 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;
• 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; and
• 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."[18]

Each year, the Center for the Performing Arts hosts the Songbook Celebration Gala, a black-tie event that celebrates the lives and careers of the artists who have been selected for induction into the Great American Songbook Hall of Fame. Nominees (or their representatives, in the case of posthumous award winners) are invited to Carmel where they are honored with tribute performances celebrating their achievements. Tribute performers at past Songbook Celebration Gala events include Jimmy Smits, Andrea McArdle, Jessica Sanchez, Laura Osnes, Karen Ziemba, Chris Mann, and Kristin Chenoweth.

Great American Songbook Hall of Fame Inductees include Alan & Marilyn Bergman, Barry Manilow, and Cole Porter (2012); Liza Minnelli, Rita Moreno, Frank Sinatra, and Jimmy Webb (2013); Nat King Cole, Shirley Jones, Johnny Mathis, and Linda Ronstadt (2014); George & Ira Gershwin, Chita Rivera, and Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gormé (2015); and Hoagy Carmichael, Diahann Carroll, and Dionne Warwick (2016). The 2017 class, consisting of Ella Fitzgerald, Mitzi Gaynor, and Ray Gilbert, was inducted into the Songbook Hall of Fame on Saturday, September 30 at the annual Songbook Celebration Gala and Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony.[19]

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.[20] The relationship will allow collaboration between the organizations on exhibits and educational and research programs, among other amenities.

Founded in 2015, the Foundation's Perfect Harmony program offers music experiences to people with Alzheimer's, dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases. This new program was launched in collaboration with the Greater Indiana Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association. During the science-based Perfect Harmony program, participants and caregivers are involved in social singing with Songbook music. As a group, people share experiences related to memorable songs and the monthly theme.[21]

The Great American Songbook Foundation partnered with Indianapolis-based Heartland Film and the Center for the Performing Arts 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.[22]