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 with season 3 being launched in spring of 2024. 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.

Shaul Bassi is Professor of English and Environmental Humanities at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. He is the co-founder and president of Beit Venezia. A Home for Jewish Culture and was the coordinator of the cultural projects related to the 500th anniversary of the Ghetto of Venice (1516-2016), where he spearheaded the production of the first performance of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice in the Ghetto and mock trial to Shylock presided by Ruth Bader Ginsburg. He is the co-founder and former director of Venice international literary festival Incroci di civiltà. His academic books include Shakespeare’s Italy and Italy’s Shakespeare: Place, “Race,” and Politics (Palgrave Macmillan 2016), Turbo Road. Il Kenya, i suoi scrittori, un bambino (2022), The Merchant in Venice. Shakespeare in the Ghetto (with Carol Chillington Rutter, Edizioni Ca’ Foscari 2021, open access), the anthology Il cortile del mondo. Nuove storie dal Ghetto di Venezia (Giuntina 2021), Essere qualcun altro. Ebrei postmoderni e postcoloniali (Cafoscarina 2011), Living Under Water. Jewish Views on the Environmental Crisis (with Andi Arnovitz, Damocle 2022 ).

A Renaissance Art Historian and Culture Management expert, with deeply rooted experience in international arts projects and fundraising for culture in Italy, Paola Vojnovic is also a curator, published author and research scholar as well as a sought-after private tour guide for Florence. The recipient of a prestigious Renaissance Florence Fellowship from Syracuse University, New York, Paola has been active in the fields of arts and culture since 2000.

British-Roman stage and screen actor Jonathan Silvestri is partnering with Hershey Felder to bring Shakespeare’s Italy and the Italian theatre and arts experiences alive. This coming season, Jonathan will appear as Tsar Nicholas II opposite Hershey Felder on stage in the world premiere musical play, RACHMANINOFF AND THE TSAR. Silvestri began his career at BAC Youth Theatre in London’s Clapham district later studying with Simon Furness. He is known for his roles in the television series “Borgia” as Cardinal Fonsalida; with Tim Rozon as a US Marine in “DAKOTA,” television series “The Young Pope,” “ Dangerous Lies,” “Devils,” “Fangs,” and he is a regular on Italian TV, in particular RAI’s ‘Impazienti’ with Max Tortora and Enrico Bertolino. Jonathan recently appeared as Eugene Delacroix in Hershey Felder’s “Noble Genius-Chopin & Liszt” and the feature film “Hey Joe,” with James Franco. A regular on Roman stages, Jonathan’s theatre credits include “Closer” by Patrick Marber, “Julius Caesar,” “Our Country’s Good,” and “Chinatown” at the Teatro Manhattan.