Hershey Felder as MONSIEUR CHOPIN

HERSHEY FELDER 

Artistic Director TEATRO NICCOLINI, Florence, Italy. TEATRO DELLA SIGNORIA Florence, Italy. Artistic Director FirenzeOnStage.com (Actor, Pianist, Producer, Playwright, Composer.)

American Theatre Magazine has said, “Hershey Felder, actor, Steinway Concert Artist and theatrical creator is in a category all his own.” Following 28 years of continuous stage productions and over 6,000 live performances throughout the U.S. and abroad, Hershey Felder created Live from Florence, an Arts Broadcasting Company, based in Florence, Italy, which has produced more than eighteen theatrical films to date. They include the recently-released Noble Genius-Chopin& Liszt; The Assembly; Violetta, the story of Verdi’s Traviata; Dante and Beatrice; Mozart and Figaro in Vienna; the world premiere musicals Nicholas, Anna & Sergei; the story of Sergei Rachmaninoff; Puccini, the story of famed opera composer Giacomo Puccini; Before Fiddler, a musical story about writer Sholem Aleichem; Great American Songs and the Stories Behind Them, Leonard Bernstein and the Israel Philharmonic, a documentary, and the popular Musical Tales in the Venetian Jewish Ghetto.  Two seasons of programming are currently available at www.hersheyfelder.net  with season 3 being launched in the spring of 2024. Hershey has given performances of his solo productions at some of the world’s most prestigious theatres and has consistently broken box office records. His shows include George Gershwin Alone (Broadway’s Helen Hayes Theatre, West End’s Duchess Theatre); Monsieur Chopin; Beethoven; Maestro (Leonard Bernstein); Franz Liszt in Musik, Lincoln: An American Story, Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin, Our Great Tchaikovsky, and A Paris Love Story and Monsieur Chopin. His compositions and recordings include Aliyah, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra; Fairytale, a musical; Les Anges de Paris, Suite for Violin and Piano; Song Settings; Saltimbanques for Piano and Orchestra; Etudes Thematiques for Piano; and An American Story for Actor and Orchestra, and the opera IL QUARTO UOMO that premiered in Fiesole, Italy in the summer of 2023 with the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Hershey is the adaptor, director, and designer for the internationally performed play-with-music The Pianist of Willesden Lane with Steinway artist Mona Golabek; producer and designer for the musical Louis and Keely: ‘Live’ at the Sahara, directed by Taylor Hackford; and writer and director for Flying Solo, featuring opera legend Nathan Gunn. Hershey has operated a full-service production company since 2001. He has been a scholar-in-residence at Harvard University’s Department of Music and is married to Rt. Hn. Kim Campbell.

JOEL ZWICK directed “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” the highest-grossing romantic comedy of all time. Recent films include “Fat Albert” and “Elvis Has Left the Building.” Mr. Zwick directed the Broadway production of Hershey Felder’s George Gershwin Alone at the Helen Hayes Theatre. He began his theatrical career at La Mama E.T.C., as director of the La Mama Plexus, and has directed on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Broadway touring companies. He and Hershey Felder have collaborated on Hershey Felder as Monsieur Chopin, Beethoven As I Knew Him, and Maestro. Currently, Mr. Zwick is recognized as one of Hollywood’s most prolific directors of episodic television, having the direction of over 650 episodes to his credit. New York productions have included Dance with Me (Tony nomination), Shenandoah (Broadway national tour), Oklahoma (national tour), and Cold Storage (American Place Theater). He acted in the original New York production of MacBird. He directed Esther (Promenade Theater, NY), Merry-Go-Round (Chicago and Las Vegas), Last Chance Saloon and Woycek (West End). Mr. Zwick has taught drama at Yale University, Brooklyn College, Queens College, Wheaton College, and the University of Southern California. He is a graduate (B.A., M.A.) of Brooklyn College.