Pasadena, CA – The Pasadena POPS is thrilled to share the link below with you as Madelyn Baillio has just been chosen to star in Hairspray Live! as announced on the Today Show. Baillio is one of three artists who will be performing with Michael Feinstein and the Pasadena POPS on Saturday, June 18 to open the 2016 season with First Ladies of Song at the Los Angeles Arboretum.
Click on the link below to see Madelyn Baillio audition and hear the news!
The red-hot POPS season opener will pay tribute to the songbooks of Judy Garland, Rosemary Clooney and Peggy Lee among others, with Madelyn joining an all-star line-up of soloists including Tony winner Cady Huffman (The Producers) and legendary swing vocalist Lynn Roberts, who has performed with the Dorsey Brothers and Frank Sinatra. Get sentimental and reminisce under the stars as Feinstein and his protégé deliver jewels from these iconic women’s songbooks with “Big Spender,” “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” “Mangos,” “Fascinating Rhythm,” and so much more.
Madelyn is the most recent winner of Michael Feinstein’s annual Songbook Competition. Click here for information on the Songbook Foundation and competition:
https://www.thecenterfortheperformingarts.org/Great-American-Songbook-Inititative/Annual-Competition
For Artist Images CLICK HERE
About Madelyn Baillio
Madelyn Baillio, from League City, Texas, served as the 2014 Songbook Youth Ambassador. A sophomore at Marymount Manhattan College in New York City, she recently starred as Dracula in Dracula, the Musical and Winnifred in Once upon a Mattress at the York Theatre. This past year Madelyn performed to capacity audiences at venues such as the Kennedy Center, the Grand 1894 Opera House, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Birdland Jazz Club with Michael Feinstein.
Madelyn has recently been selected to perform the role of Tracy Turnblad in NBC’s Hair Spray Live!
About Michael Feinstein
Michael Feinstein has built a dazzling career over the last three decades bringing the music of the Great American songbook to the world. From recordings that have earned him five Grammy Award nominations to his Emmy nominated PBS-TV specials, his acclaimed NPR series and concerts spanning the globe – in addition to his appearances at iconic venues such as The White House, Buckingham Palace, Hollywood Bowl, Carnegie Hall and Sydney Opera House – his work as an educator and archivist define Feinstein as one of the most important musical forces of our time.
In 2007, he founded the Great American Songbook Foundation, dedicated to celebrating the art form and preserving it through educational programs, Master Classes, and the annual High School Songbook Academy. This summer intensive open to students from across the country has produced graduates who have gone on to record acclaimed albums and appear on television programs such as NBC’s “America’s Got Talent.” Michael serves on the Library of Congress’ National Recording Preservation Board, an organization dedicated to ensuring the survival, conservation and increased public availability of America’s sound recording heritage.
The most recent album from his multi-platinum recording career is A Michael Feinstein Christmas from Concord Records. The CD features Grammy Award -winning jazz pianist Alan Broadbent (Paul McCartney, Diana Krall, Natalie Cole). Feinstein earned his fifth Grammy Award nomination in 2009 for The Sinatra Project, his CD celebrating the music of “Ol’ Blue Eyes.” The Sinatra Project, Volume II: The Good Life was released in 2011. He released the CDs The Power Of Two – collaborating with “Glee” and “30 Rock” star Cheyenne Jackson – and Cheek To Cheek, recorded with Broadway legend Barbara Cook. For Feinstein’s CD We Dreamed These Days, he co-wrote the title song with Dr. Maya Angelou.
His Emmy Award-nominated TV special Michael Feinstein – The Sinatra Legacy, which was taped live at the Palladium in Carmel, IN, aired across the country in 2011. The PBS series “Michael Feinstein’s American Songbook,” the recipient of the ASCAP Deems-Taylor Television Broadcast Award, was broadcast for three seasons and is available on DVD. His most recent primetime PBS-TV Special, “New Year’s Eve at The Rainbow Room” – written and directed by “Desperate Housewives” creator Marc Cherry – aired in 2014. For his nationally syndicated public radio program “Song Travels,” Michael interviews and performs alongside of music luminaries such as Bette Midler, Neil Sedaka, Liza Minnelli, Rickie Lee Jones, David Hyde Pierce and more.
Feinstein was named Principal Pops Conductor for the Pasadena Symphony in 2012 and made his conducting debut in June 2013 to celebrated critical acclaim. Under Feinstein’s leadership, the Pasadena Pops has quickly become a premier orchestral presenter of the Great American Songbook with definitive performances of rare orchestrations and classic arrangements. He launched an additional Pops series at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in Palm Beach, Florida in 2014.
Michael’s book The Gershwins and Me – the Los Angeles Times best-seller from Simon & Schuster – features a new CD of Gershwin standards performed with Cyrus Chestnut at the piano.
Feinstein serves as Artistic Director of the Palladium Center for the Performing Arts, a $170 million, three-theatre venue in Carmel, Indiana, which opened in January 2011. The theater is home to diverse live programming and a museum for his rare memorabilia and manuscripts. Since 1999, he has served as Artistic Director for Carnegie Hall’s “Standard Time with Michael Feinstein” in conjunction with ASCAP. In 2010 he became the director of the Jazz and Popular Song Series at New York’s Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Feinstein’s at the Nikko, Michael’s nightclub at San Francisco’s Nikko Hotel, has presented the top talents of pop and jazz since 2013. He debuted at Feinstein’s/54 Below, his new club in New York, late in 2015. His first venue in New York, Feinstein’s at the Regency, featured major entertainers such as Rosemary Clooney, Glen Campbell, Barbara Cook, Diahann Carroll, Jane Krakowski, Lea Michele, Cyndi Lauper, Jason Mraz and Alan Cumming from 1999 to 2012.
He has designed a new piano for Steinway called “The First Ladies,” inspired by the White House piano and signed by several former First Ladies. It was first played to commemorate the Ronald Regan centennial on February 6, 2011.
In 2013 Michael released Change Of Heart: The Songs of Andre Previn in collaboration with four time Oscar and eleven time Grammy Award-winning composer-conductor-pianist Andre Previn. The album celebrates Previn’s pop songs and motion picture classics. Earlier album highlights include Hopeless Romantics, a songbook of classics by Michael’s late friend Harry Warren, recording with legendary jazz pianist George Shearing. His album with songwriting icon Jimmy Webb, Only One Life – The Songs of Jimmy Webb, was named one of “10 Best CDs of the Year” by USA Today.
Feinstein received his fourth Grammy nomination for Michael Feinstein with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, his first recording with a symphony orchestra. The year before, Rhino/Elektra Music released The Michael Feinstein Anthology, a two-disc compilation spanning 1987 to 1996 and featuring old favorites and previously-unreleased tracks.
Michael was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, where he started playing piano by ear as a 5-year-old. After graduating from high school, he moved to Los Angeles when he was 20. The widow of legendary concert pianist-actor Oscar Levant introduced him to Ira Gershwin in July 1977. Feinstein became Gershwin’s assistant for six years, which earned him access to numerous unpublished Gershwin songs, many of which he has since performed and recorded.
Gershwin’s influence provided a solid base upon which Feinstein evolved into a captivating performer, composer and arranger of his own original music. He also has become an unparalleled interpreter of music legends such as Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Johnny Mercer, Duke Ellington and Harry Warren. Feinstein has received three honorary doctorates.
Through his live performances, recordings, film and television appearances, and his songwriting (in collaboration with Alan and Marilyn Bergman, Lindy Robbins, Bob Merrill and Marshall Barer), Feinstein is an all-star force in American music.
For more information, please visit www.MichaelFeinstein.com.
About Cady Huffman
Cady can currently be seen on the Netflix series MASTER OF NONE and the web series HE’S WITH ME, for which she just won the Indie Series Award for Best Guest Appearance in a Comedy. heswithme.tv
Her most recent Broadway appearance was in The Tony Award winning play THE NANCE opposite Nathan Lane, for which she received an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination. She is perhaps best known for her Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award winning performance as “Ulla” in The Producers on Broadway opposite Mr. Lane and Matthew Broderick. This led to her unforgettable recurring role on HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm where she almost became Larry David’s 10th anniversary present. This success also brought her to the Food Network’s kitchen stadium where she judged for 10 consecutive seasons on Iron Chef America.
Cady’s other Broadway credits are her Tony-nominated performance as Ziegfeld’s Favorite in THE WILL ROGERS FOLLIES, the original production of LA CAGE AUX FOLLES, STEEL PIER, DAME EDNA: THE ROYAL TOUR, and Bob Fosse’s last original musical BIG DEAL. She has had several guest starring appearances on television, including a recurring role on The Good Wife, Law & Order: SVU, Law & Order: CI, Law & Order: Trial By Jury, Frasier and Mad About You. She even showed up on Daytime’s One Life To Live as the 2nd Dr. Paige Miller.
Cady’s big screen appearances include The Company Men opposite Ben Affleck and Chris Cooper, John Turturro’s star studded musical film Romance & Cigarettes, Hero (with Dustin Hoffman, Geena Davis and Andy Garcia), The Nanny Diaries opposite Scarlett Johansson and the upcoming Christmas movie Love The Coopers. She also has starring roles in the indy films Molly’s Theory of Relativity, Dare, $20 Drinks, Billy’s Dad Is A fudgepacker, Space Marines and Throw the Hoolihan. She also produced and stars in film festival favorite Sunday on the Rocks which won 2nd Place Feature at the New Haven Film Festival.
Cady often lends her talents and resources to several charitable causes, including Creative Alternatives of New York (CANY.org), AIDS awareness, breast cancer research, women’s heart health and animal rights. As an advocate for the arts, she has traveled to Washington to speak to Senators and Congresspersons and has spoken on panels at Sundance Film Festival and Brown and Harvard Universities focusing on the arts and first amendment rights. She is passionate about keeping the arts in public schools and helping young people realize their potential.
About Lynn Roberts
Those of us who have been privileged to share many musical moments with Lynn Roberts, are grateful that she has prevailed as one of the few stars to bridge the decades. Her dedication and success have provided us with a legacy of an endless flow of wonderful music from the big band era to the present. It takes only one short session with her to convince anyone, that Lynn Roberts is their favorite singer, and one of the super songbirds of all time.
Lynn started her exciting career with Charlie Spivak at the age of 15, beating out sixty other candidates for the job. Songbird Roberts spent one year with Charlie, a year with Vincent Lopez, five years with Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, ten years with Benny Goodman and four years with Harry James.
She also shared the spotlight with Sammy Kaye for a year and a half, on the ABC show Music from Manhattan. Lynn also sang with the Pied Pipers for many years. Her career momentum led her to stellar performances throughout the United States, Europe, Japan and Israel. Many famous clubs became routine stops on her busy schedule. The Cafe Rouge at the Statler Hotel in Manhattan, the Coconut Grove and the Palladium in L.A. and the renowned Paramount Theatre in New York with the fabulous Dorsey Brothers and Frank Sinatra. Lynn has the distinction of being the ONLY girl singer to have sung with all these superstar band leaders.
In 1978 producer Michael Bennett featured her as “Marlene” the girl singer in the Broadway production of “Ballroom”. It was there that critic Rex Reed said “Lynn Roberts sings like an angel, and the way she handles “Dreams”, the evening’s best song, is a thing of pure beauty.” In recent years Lynn has been deluged with requests for special appearances at jazz festivals, on major cruise lines, television specials, famous night spots, and private parties both here and abroad.
The symphony orchestras of Buffalo, Palm Beach, Corpus Christi and Albuquerque have featured Lynn in major productions ranging from specials dedicated to Judy Garland, to the big band era as a whole. Starting in January of 1997, she will be appearing with Doc Severensen, another Tommy Dorsey alumni, and symphony orchestras, doing a tribute to the big bands. When jazz fests in North Carolina, Maryland, Finland, and other areas are not using her talents, the Songbird may find herself booked at the Rainbow Room, Tavern On The Green’s Chestnut Room, or with the Tommy Dorsey band at the Alabama Theatre in Myrtle Beach. Lynn has also been featured in two PBS specials that have aired frequently-due to their popularity. She recently completed her new CD, The Men in My Life, using the spectacular big band “Reunion,” made up of musicians from the “Air Men Of Note,” and the “US Navy Commanders.” All in all, she’s still as pretty as her pictures, enjoying the best “voice” of her career, and constantly winning over a growing fan club of listeners throughout the world. A critic said of Lynn’s recent performance with the Corpus Christi symphony; “There was only one person who seemed to be having more fun than the audience, and that was LYNN.”
Born Leonore Theresa Raisig in Brooklyn, New York in 1935, Lynn was raised in Queens by parents at opposite poles of support for their precocious, pre-school singing daughter. Dad — an accountant who always longed for his own show-biz career, prevailed, and Lynn began performing in vaudeville at age eight – during summer vacations. It was there that she appeared in the company of such greats as Abbott and Costello and Rody McDowell.