Singer Michael Feinstein says, "When I choose a song, I go with my gut. It's hard to do because there are so many brilliant songs to choose from." Although he includes current songwriters in his performances and recordings, and has recently toured and recorded with Jimmy Webb ("Wichita Lineman," "MacArthur Park"), Feinstein has always been drawn most insistently to the songwriters for what he and others call The Great American Songbook - the unequalled songs of such composers and lyricists as Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Harry Warren, and especially for Feinstein, George and Ira Gershwin. Standards like Berlin's "Always," Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields' "A Fine Romance," Harry Warren and Al Dubin's "September in the Rain," and the Gershwins' "Love Is Here To Stay." He has also recorded the works of such second-tier songwriters as Jerry Herman, Burton Lane, Jule Styne, and Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane (most famous for their score to the movie, "Meet Me in St. Louis"). Nearly all of them flourished between the 1920's and the 1950's.

Feinstein, 53, takes his place perhaps a step behind such superb singers as Barbara Cook, Tony Bennett, and - his favorite - Rosemary Clooney. What makes him distinctive, aside from his considerable passion for the songs and his intelligence about them, is his knowledge of their history. He is almost as much a student and scholar of the songs as he is their singer. Feinstein and his piano will be on stage at the Hochstein Performance Hall this weekend for a special benefit performance for the George Eastman House's 60th anniversary. But that's it: just Feinstein and the Steinway.

Those who have seen Feinstein appear in recent years with symphony orchestras (including the RPO Pops back in the 1990's), or have heard his recordings with large studio bands, will have a chance to hear the way he worked at the start of his career, a particular opportunity because 2010 also marks the 25th anniversary of his professional debut. He said in a recent telephone interview, "I always had the desire to perform professionally, although I didn't know what shape my career would take."

After graduating high school in Columbus, Ohio, he played in local piano bars before moving to Los Angeles in 1977. He soon met famed lyricist Ira Gershwin, then in his late 70s, and worked for him for six years as his literary executor and archivist. He then went out on his own, playing in clubs at first, performing the songs he loves and knows so much about - and to which audiences continue to respond.

He says, "I've gotten better at what I do. I go deeper into an interpretation of the songs, the sense of what they're about. My goal has been to express what the writers wanted to say without superimposing my own distortion on it. Great interpreters can make the song their own and still bring through the song's essence. That's what I try for." He also has a clear sense of what matters most to him: "I'm a traditionalist. I believe in the essential need for melody."

Feinstein's success takes form, in part, in his various awards, including a 2009 Grammy nomination (his fifth) for his most recent recording, "The Sinatra Project," what Feinstein calls an attempt to "explore [Sinatra's] style of singing and his style of music...a new way to interpret these songs." He has also begun work on a musical adaptation of the film "The Thomas Crown Affair," and has taken on the artistic directorship of the Carmel Performing Arts Center, currently under construction in Carmel, Indiana. The Center will serve as the permanent home for Feinstein's vast archive of music and recordings. By providing a permanent home for Feinstein's vast archive of music and recordings, and by sponsoring an annual Festival of American Song, the Center aims to keep alive this music and its history.

Looking back, Feinstein admits that, "I feel tremendous gratitude for being able to do the thing I most love in a time when public taste changes so rapidly. I never expected to have the career I've had."

Michael Feinstein

Benefit Concert for George Eastman House

Sunday, October 11

Hochstein Performance Hall, 50 N Plymouth Ave.

4 p.m. | $55-$250 | 271-3361 x.218, eastmanhouse.org