Hershey Felder (born July 9, 1968)[2] is a pianist, actor, and playwright known for his portrayals of classical and American composers on the theatrical stage.
Felder was born in Montreal, Quebec,[2] to Jacob Felder (born 1929 in Ustrzyki, Poland) and Eva Surek Felder (born 1946 in Budapest, Hungary). He was raised in a Yiddish-speaking home mainly, from age 13, by his widower father.[3]
Felder traveled to Los Angeles in 1994 and worked briefly for the Steven Spielberg Shoah Foundation, now the USC Shoah Foundation, where, using his knowledge of Yiddish and French, he interviewed Holocaust survivors to preserve their oral histories on film. The following year, he attended the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz in Poland, where he met Helmuth Spryzcer, who as a boy was made to whistle Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue to the German guards.[citation needed] This led Felder to create Sing! A Musical Journey, about two Holocaust survivors, with Rhapsody in Blue at the conclusion.[4] For nearly two years, Felder focused on the persona and music of George Gershwin, meeting with many of Gershwin's family members, and in 1999 he created at Los Angeles Tiffany Theatre a workshop production of a one-man show, George Gershwin Alone, [5][6] which has since had more than 40 productions in theatres in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Italy. George Gershwin Alone was followed by Monsieur Chopin (premier Royal George Theatre, Chicago, 2005) and Beethoven, As I Knew Him (Old Globe Theatre San Diego, 2008).
In 2010, he premiered his one-man play-with-music about Leonard Bernstein, Maestro[7][8][9] at the Geffen Theatre in Los Angeles. In 2013, Felder received a letter from Russian Theatrical Producers inviting him to portray Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The same month, Russian Duma - Russian Parliament, had passed anti-gay legislation. Since Tchaikovsky is believed to have been homosexual, Felder named his work "Our Great Tchaikovsky", performing it only in the U.S.[10][11]
As a composer, Felder's works include Noah's Ark, an Opera, Aliyah Concerto on Israeli Themes, as well as Song Settings (the poetry of Vachel Lindsay), Etudes Thematiques, Les Preludes. In September 2010, An American Story was recorded with the Ars Viva Symphony Orchestra of Chicago.[citation needed]
On May 10, 2020, Felder live-streamed his one-man play Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin from his home in Florence, Italy to selected audiences throughout the United States. The production was a fundraiser for the San Diego Repertory Theatre; along with a dozen other theaters at which Felder performs. On July 12, Felder performed another online benefit of his one-man show Hershey Felder: Beethoven.[20] In 2020 Felder went onto create the broadcast entertainment brand Live From Florence which broadcasts original productions performed and filmed on location for worldwide audiences.[21]
In November 2021, Felder moved away from live-streamed theater to on-demand musical films with the premiere airing of Dante and Beatrice in Florence, for which he wrote both the script and the score, co-directed the film, and performed two roles as well as playing the piano and singing.[22]
In 2022, Felder produced, narrated, conducted interviews, and, on the piano, accompanied cellist Amit Peled in the movie, "Musical Tales of the Venetian Jewish Ghetto".[23][24]
