Michael Feinstein and the U.S. Marine Corps Band at The Music Center at Strathmore

Michael Feinstein and the U.S. Marine Corps Band
The Music Center at Strathmore
Bethesda, MD
April 26, 2026

"The President's Own," they're called—not as popular a moniker these days with old orangehead closing the Kennedy Center and wreaking whatever havoc he dreams up online at two in the morning.  But give the United States Marine Corps Band a break. These are some of the country's finest instrumentalists and their chops were on full display at the beautiful Music Center at Strathmore, a comfortable distance from the UFC fight on the White House lawn. Guest star Michael Feinstein put the ladies and gentlemen of note through their paces lionizing the Great American Songbook. Over two-plus hours of great music, Semper Fi seldom flew so high.

George and Ira Gershwin's patriotic anthem "Strike Up the Band"  got things started as the big band swung to Feinstein's commanding piano, teasing passages from George's"Rhapsody in Blue" into a big, muscular finish. From there it was on to another George—George M. Cohan, a Great American Songbook contributor sometimes overlooked in clubs and concert halls. The Marines' string section  provided a tender backdrop on "Grand Old Flag," segueing into a martial tempo for "Over There."  Songs of yearning and longing were next up on the music stands, as Feinstein and the strings reached back to 1918 with the Great War ballad  "Til We Meet Again."  The house had a grand time with Feinstein's rendition of another World War I confection, "Sister Susie's Sewing Shirts for Soldiers," dancing through the tongue-tying lyric with ease and the big band's rollicking horn section.

No celebration of the Great American Songbook would be complete without a large slice of Irving Berlin. From Berlin's Broadway foray "Miss Liberty," Feinstein pulled a lovely string and flute arrangement, a symphonic setting of Emma Lazarus's "Give me your tired, your poor" poem that graces the Statue of Liberty (a poem we should all reflect on these days). Of course, a Berlin batch would be incomplete without his first big hit "Alexander's Ragtime Band," begun as a slow shuffle in the reed section, then transferring to the strings and on to the brass before Feinstein brought them all together with a big, bluesy coda.

Besides being a consummate performer, Feinstein is a revered musicologist. That training lead him to the Eubie Blake-Andy Razaf ballad "Memories of You," introduced by Ethel Waters in the '30s. The orchestra brought a big, moody landscape to the number, with strings and reeds giving way to Feinstein's performance echoed in the horn section. Burton Lane got his due with the standard "How About You" introduced by Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland in Lane's hit show "Babes on Broadway." A swinging rendition of "The Trolley Song" from "Meet Me In St Louis"—a song also introduced by Garland—added composer Hugh Martin's name to the Songbook list. Rounding out act one, Jerry Herman's oeuvre was featured in a medley that moved smoothly from "Hello Dolly" through "Put on Your Sunday Clothes" in full Marine oompah regalia, the plaintive "It Only Takes a Moment" and the barnburner  "Before the Parade Passes By," buttoned by another big finish.

Act two got under way with an homage to Frank Sinatra, from a swinging take on Frank Loesser's "Luck Be a Lady Tonight" from "Guys & Dolls"  to Nelson Riddle's arrangement of the Jimmy Van Heusen standard (and Sinatra theme song) "All the Way," strings and reeds trading off with the trombone section, then modulating back to Feinstein's vocal for a fermata that went on forever (the guy has lungs).

Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein's "The Song Is You"—covered by the Chairman of the Board AND the Bird—swung it in the horns as the reeds took a break. More contemporary was the touching ballad "Old Friend" from Gretchen Cryer and Nancy Ford's off-Broadway musical "I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking It on the Road." Feinstein soloed on the piece until the refrain, when the strings joined in a lush arrangement. Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine" brought the saxophone section back in force, sharing the bandstand with muted horns and Feinstein's dynamic vocal. 

Feinstein spent many years as Ira Gershwin's musical assistant, cataloguing the great lyricist's works and becoming a widely respected interpreter. No wonder, then, that a Gershwin medley concluded the Strathmore serenade. A cello solo punctuated languid reeds and strings in "Embraceable You," while Feinstein syncopated the standard "Of Three I Sing," swinging the tune into a bright shuffle. The lovely ballad "Someone to Watch Over Me," complete with Ira's signature intro, prefigured a quick pass through an amazing archive—"Shall We Dance," "Fascinating Rhythm," "I Got Rhythm" and the Gershwin's final contribution to the Songbook, "Our Love is Here To Stay," capped by a lovely send-off in the string section. 

Though it was time for the sold-out crowd to depart, one thing was clear—our love was definitely there to stay, thanks to Michael Feinstein and "The President's Own."