Hershey Felder

Felder was born on July 9, 1968, to Jacob Felder (born in Ustrzyki, Poland, 1929) and Eva Surek Felder (born in Budapest, Hungary, 1946). He was raised in a Yiddish-speaking home mainly by his widowed father, a Holocaust survivor.[3] He got into showbiz as a young boy in Montreal singing a sad little song about a boy who is starving and freezing, Shver tzu zayn a Yid (It's tough to be a Jew).[4]

Felder moved to Los Angeles in 1994 and worked briefly for the USC Shoah Foundation, with his knowledge of Yiddish and Polish interviewing 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 a Jewish man who as a boy was made to whistle Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue to the German guards. This led Felder to create Sing! A Musical Journey about two Holocaust survivors, with Rhapsody in Blue at the conclusion.[5] 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 created at a Los Angeles workshop production of a one-man show, George Gershwin Alone.[6][7]

In 2010, he premiered his one-man play-with-music about Leonard Bernstein, Maestro.[8][9][10] In 2013, Felder received a letter from Russian officials inviting him to portray Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The same month, Russian authorities 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.[11][12]

A 2014 American Theatre profile referred to Felder as being "in a category all his own".[13] His major portrayals are those of George Gershwin, Frédéric Chopin, Ludwig van Beethoven, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and Claude Debussy.[14][15] After a storied gestation period of two decades, including meetings with many of the Berlin family members, he has given a much-requested dramatic impersonation of the American songwriter Irving Berlin.[16][17][18][19]

In 2014, Felder directed concert pianist Mona Golabek in The Pianist of Willesden Lane, an adaptation of the book The Children of Willesden Lane, telling the story of Golabek's mother as an adolescent in the Kindertransport during World War II.[20][21]

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). In September 2010, An American Story was recorded with the Ars Viva Symphony Orchestra of Chicago.

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.[22]

Felder is married to former Prime Minister of Canada Kim Campbell.[23] They share residences in Paris[24] and Florence.[22]

Felder has written and performed solo in seven plays of notable composers.

• Broadway in Concert (2004)
• Love Songs of the Yiddish Theatre
• Back from Broadway
• George Gershwin Alone (2005)
• Monsieur Chopin (in association with WFMT Radio Network Recordings)
• Beethoven As I Knew Him
• An American Story
• Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin (2018)
• Our Great Tchaikovsky (2019)
• Beethoven (2019)

• Eighty Eight Entertainment (Felder website)
• Hershey Felder at IMDb
• Hershey Felder Presents: Live from Florence (global livestreaming launched 2020)