A coast-to-coast lineup of rising stars and top students in the performing arts will gather online this month for a virtual holiday presentation hosted by Great American Songbook Foundation Founder Michael Feinstein. Featuring alumni from the decade-plus history of the annual Songbook Academy® summer intensive, Twelve Songs of the Season: A Virtual Holiday Special will stream online at 8 p.m. ET Saturday, Dec. 19. Viewing the one-time webcast is free via YouTube, with registration available at TheSongbook.org/Holiday.
Along with fresh renditions of seasonal classics – “ I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” “My Favorite Things,” “Sleigh Ride,” “Let It Snow” and “White Christmas,” among others – Twelve Songs of the Season will include historical anecdotes from Feinstein about the featured songs, as well as glimpses of rarely seen artifacts from the Songbook Archives.
Performers will include five-time Grammy nominee Feinstein and several recipients of the Songbook Academy’s top honor, the Songbook Youth Ambassador award: Julia Bonnett (2009), Annie Yokom (2010), Nick Ziobro (2012), Julia Goodwin (2013) and Sadie Fridley (2019).
Also featured are 2014 Songbook Youth Ambassador Maddie Baillio, who starred in NBC’s Hairspray Live! and appears alongside Camila Cabello, Idina Menzel and an all-star cast in the upcoming film adaptation of Cinderella; and 16-year-old Anaïs Reno, a 2018 Songbook Academy alumna who has performed at Birdland and Feinstein’s/54 Below in Manhattan and recently was listed among “the next generation of cabaret showstoppers” by the New York Times; and nearly a dozen additional alumni of the program studying at universities and pursuing professional careers across the country.
