Hershey Felder

Hershey Felder (born July 9, 1968) is a pianist, actor, playwright, composer, producer, and director. He created (as playwright, actor, and pianist) the role of American composer George Gershwin for the theatrical stage in the play George Gershwin Alone, which was followed by the creation of the roles of Fryderyk Chopin, the Polish composer-pianist; Ludwig van Beethoven and Gerhard von Breuning in Beethoven; Leonard Bernstein in Maestro Bernstein; Franz Liszt in Musik; Irving Berlin in Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin; and Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in Our Great Tchaikovsky. "The Composer Sonata" comprises these works. Felder also directed concert pianist Mona Golabek in The Pianist of Willesden Lane, Felder's adaptation of The Children of Willesden Lane, written by Golabek and Lee Cohen. Felder's Noah’s Ark, an Opera has been performed with members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. His Aliyah Concerto on Israeli Themes for piano and orchestra has been performed in the United States and Canada. The suite Les Anges de Paris for violin and piano, Etudes Thématiques, as well as Song Settings (the poetry of Vachel Lindsay) have been performed on and recorded by the WFMT Radio Network in Chicago. In September 2010, An American Story was recorded with the Ars Viva Symphony Orchestra, composed of members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chicago Lyric Opera Orchestra, and conducted by Alan Heatherington. In October 2014, American Theatre magazine referred to Felder as a "one-man cottage industry" for whom quality is paramount in that he feels a responsibility to his audience.Felder is the president of Eighty-Eight Entertainment, a music-based production company, producing new performance works worldwide. Since 1997, he has been married to former Canadian prime minister Kim Campbell.