Also available via Streaming On Demand December 21-27
Felder partners with The Actors Fund providing emergency financial assistance for arts professionals
December 15, 2020, Florence, Italy – Hershey Felder Presents – Live from Florence continues its 2020-2021 season with a special holiday performance of Hershey Felder TCHAIKOVSKY, which will be live streamed from Florence, Italy on Sunday, December 20, 2020 at 5:00 PM PT / 8:00 PM ET. Streaming On Demand for Hershey Felder TCHAIKOVSKY will also be available from December 21-27, 2020.
Proceeds from Hershey Felder TCHAIKOVSKY will benefit over 20 national and international theatres, arts organizations and publications. Felder is also pleased to announce that he will partner with The Actors Fund, the national human services organization that serves the entertainment community, for the creation of a fund to help provide emergency financial assistance to the entertainment and performing arts professionals impacted by the current health crisis, and beyond. Tickets ($55 per household) are available for purchase at the following link: Eventbrite. 100% of proceeds from tickets purchased at this link will go to benefit The Actors Fund.
The production is an adaptation of the critically acclaimed Our Great Tchaikovsky, written and performed by the virtuoso pianist, actor and playwright Hershey Felder, which dazzled audiences in sold-out runs in the U.S. and around the world. This richly filmic production brings the great Russian composer Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to vibrant musical and dramatic life.
Hershey Felder TCHAIKOVSKY will also feature an expanded section on the composer’s iconic holiday favorite, The Nutcracker, and segments from the locations in Florence where Tchaikovsky visited, worked and lived. The live stream is directed by Florentine cinema artist Stefano Decarli based on the original stage play directed by Trevor Hay.
Hershey Felder TCHAIKOVSKY will also include selections from an array of Tchaikovsky’s music, including the ballets Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty, the 1812 Overture, Piano Concerto no. 1, and his brilliant symphonic works. Hershey Felder TCHAIKOVSKY also features iconic locations in Florence that were significant in the composer’s life, as identified in letters he wrote between the years 1874-1890. These include Villa Bonciani, the actual residence Tchaikovksy lived in and where he composed his Suite No. 1 in 1878, as well as the Piazalle Michelangelo, Museo Bellini, Palazzo Pitti, Ponte Vecchio, Tornabuoni, and locations along the Arno River.
Production design is by Hershey Felder. Staging is by Trevor Hay. Film production and live editing is by the DeCarli Live film company. Live broadcast and sound design production are by Erik Carstensen. Historical and biographical research is by Meghan Maiya. Costumes are by Tedavi 98. Hair and beard are by Gherardo Filistrucchi. Wardrobe is by Isabelle Gerbe. I.T. by Annette Nixon. Company Management is by Samantha F. Voxakis.
About Hershey Felder
Named to Time Magazine’s 2016 Top 10 Plays and Musicals, Hershey Felder has played over 6,000 performances of his self-created solo productions at some of the world’s most prestigious theatres and has broken box office records consistently. American Theatre Magazine has said, “Hershey Felder is in a category all his own.” 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. 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. 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, and in 2020 created a new brand, LIVE FROM FLORENCE, that operates a “theatre at home broadcast company” based in Florence, Italy. Early broadcasts included; Hershey Felder as IRVING BERLIN; Hershey Felder, BEETHOVEN; Hershey Felder as GEORGE GERSHWIN ALONE; Hershey Felder, BACKSTORY – The Story Behind the Creation of Berlin, Gershwin & Bernstein; and Cooking French in Florence with Jeff Thickman & Hershey Felder. The Hershey Felder Presents - Live from Florence 2020-21 Season of broadcasts include: Hershey Felder as Claude Debussy in A PARIS LOVE STORY; Hershey Felder, TCHAIKOVSKY; Hershey Felder as Sholem Aleichem in BEFORE FIDDLER; Hershey Felder, PUCCINI; and Hershey Felder as Sergei Rachmaninoff in ANNA & SERGEI. Hershey has been a scholar-in-residence at Harvard University’s Department of Music and is married to Kim Campbell, the first female Prime Minister of Canada.
About The Actors Fund
The Actors Fund is a national human services organization that fosters stability and resiliency, and provides a safety net for performing arts and entertainment professionals over their lifespan. Through offices in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, The Fund serves everyone in film, theater, television, music, opera, radio and dance with programs including social services and emergency financial assistance, health care and insurance counseling, housing, and secondary employment and training services. Visit actorsfund.org.