Love Notes

Hershey Felder is currently the Artistic Director of FirenzeOnStage, directing Teatro Niccolini in Florence, Italy, (Florence’s oldest theatre, 1648) at the left wing of Florence’s historic Duomo. Mr. Felder opened the 2024-25 season with film and stage superstar Jeff Goldblum, and presented international superstars such as Helen Mirren, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Boris Giltburg, Taylor Hackford, Tony winners Santino Fontana, Jenn Colella, the cast of the film of the Sound of Music and many more. For the 2025-26 season, Felder presented the Italian premiere of Caligula the Final Cut, with the presence of its superstars, Malcolm McDowell and Helen Mirren in a discussion with the audience. The season continues with stars of stage, screen, opera and classical music. American Theatre Magazinehas 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 more than 6,000 live performances throughout the U.S. and abroad, Felder created Live from Florence, An Arts Broadcasting Company, based in Florence, Italy, which has produced 18 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 hersheyfelder.net with season three being launched in spring of 2026. Upcoming films include The 60th anniversary documentary story of The Sound of Music film; The Joe Alterman Project featuring the story of Jazz pianist Joe Alterman and Tender Art, the story of George Sand, Eugène Delacroix and Fryderyk Chopin. Felder has given performances of his solo theatre 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, (Debussy) Monsieur Chopin and Rachmaninoff and the Tsar. Season 2024 saw the world premiere of Rachmaninoff and the Tsar, as composer-pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff opposite Jonathan Silvestri as Tsar Nicholas II. 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; 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. Felder 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. Felder 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. Hershey currently resides in Florence where he is the director of a full service film production studio, Monte Acuto Arti, in Bagno a Ripoli.