Hershey Felder
Artistic Director
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.
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.
John Yonover
Executive Producer
Produced and invested in more than 65 productions on Broadway, Chicago and London’s West End, including Memphis The Musical, Something Rotten, Enron, The Addams Family, Dee Snider’s Rock and Roll Christmas (Toronto and Chicago), Six, The Play That Goes Wrong, Peter Pan That Goes Wrong, Magic That Goes Wrong, Dear Evan Hansen, The Lehman Trilogy (Tony Award), A Beautiful Noise, First Date, Magic Mike Live, Come From Away, Windfall (Directed by Jason Alexander) and Mrs. Doubtfire The Musical to name a few. John appeared as a guest judge on one episode for Donald Trump’s ‘Apprentice’ alongside Daryl Roth and Kristen Chenoweth. He has produced two feature films Fly Away, Alto and is a producer of the short films Kamerad and the soon to be released, There Is Something I Have to Tell You. John and his wife of 37 years, Evonne, are beyond excited to be a part of Firenze on Stage in the city that they first fell in love 40 years ago.