Hershey Felder Set for George Gershwin Event at The Jewish Museum

The Jewish Museum will present WISH YOU WERE HERE: GEORGE GERSHWIN on Tuesday, May 31 at 6:30pm. Jens Hoffmann, Deputy Director, Exhibitions and Public Programs, will speak with "George Gershwin" as portrayed by pianist and playwright Hershey Felder. Felder will perform beloved Gershwin works including Rhapsody in Blue in its entirety, selections from Porgy and Bess, and Gershwin's own arrangement of 'S Wonderful and The Man I Love. The evening will also feature an interactive component, integrating questions and comments from Twitter and other social media platforms received in advance.

Over a period of three years, Hoffmann is interviewing the subjects of Andy Warhol's Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century (1980), interpreted by prominent experts, as if each were coming to the Museum to have a conversation in the present day. This is the seventh conversation in the series.

Tickets are $15 general public; $12 students and seniors; $10 Jewish Museum members Further program and ticket information is available online at TheJewishMuseum.org/calendar. The Jewish Museum is located at Fifth Avenue and 92nd Street, Manhattan.

Hershey Felder is a Canadian pianist, actor, playwright, composer, producer, and director. He created (as playwright, actor, and pianist) the role of George Gershwin in the one-man play George Gershwin Alone. Combining the craft of acting and concert-level piano performance, Felder followed George Gershwin Alone with performances as Frederic Chopin, Ludwig van Beethoven, Leonard Bernstein, Franz Liszt, and Irving Berlin. Felder's original composition Noah's Ark, An Opera has been performed with members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. American Theatre Magazine called Felder as a "one-man cottage industry" for his work recreating music and lives of the great composers.

Highly regarded curator Jens Hoffmann joined the Jewish Museum in a newly created position as Deputy Director, Exhibitions and Public Programs in November 2012. Hoffmann is conceptualizing ideas and strategies for exhibitions, acquisitions, publications, research, and public programs, drawing on his global perspective and deep knowledge of contemporary art and visual culture. Formerly Director of the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art in San Francisco from 2007 to 2012 and Director of Exhibitions and Chief Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London between 2003 and 2007, Hoffmann has organized more than 40 shows internationally since the late 1990s. Hoffmann is known for applying a multi-disciplinary approach to his curatorial practice.

This program has been funded by a donation from Lorraine and Martin Beitler who gifted Andy Warhol's Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century to the Jewish Museum in 2006.

Public programs are made possible by endowment support from the William Petschek Family, the Trustees of the Salo W. and Jeannette M. Baron Foundation, Barbara and Benjamin Zucker, the late William W. Hallo, the late Susanne Hallo Kalem, the late Ruth Hallo Landman, the Marshall M. Weinberg Fund, with additional support from Marshall M. Weinberg, the Rita J. and Stanley H. Kaplan Foundation, the Saul and Harriet M. Rothkopf Family Foundation, and Ellen Liman. Additional support is provided by Lorraine and Martin Beitler, the Edmond de Rothschild Foundations, Genesis Philanthropy Group, and through public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

Located on Museum Mile at Fifth Avenue and 92nd Street, the Jewish Museum is one of the world's preeminent institutions devoted to exploring art and Jewish culture from ancient to contemporary, offering intellectually engaging, educational, and provocative exhibitions and programs for people of all ages and backgrounds. The Museum was established in 1904, when Judge Mayer Sulzberger donated 26 ceremonial objects to The Jewish Theological Seminary as the core of a museum collection. Today, the Museum maintains a collection of over 30,000 works of art, artifacts, and broadcast media reflecting global Jewish identity, and presents a diverse schedule of internationally acclaimed temporary exhibitions.

The Jewish Museum is located at 1109 Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street, New York City. Museum hours are Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, 11am to 5:45pm; Thursday, 11am to 8pm; and Friday, 11am to 4pm. Museum admission is $15.00 for adults, $12.00 for senior citizens, $7.50 for students, free for visitors 18 and under and Jewish Museum members. Admission is Pay What You Wish on Thursdays from 5pm to 8pm and free on Saturdays. For information on the Jewish Museum, the public may call 212.423.3200 or visit the website at TheJewishMuseum.org.

Images: Jens Hoffmann. Photo by Robert Adler; Andy Warhol, George Gershwin, from Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century, 1980, screenprint on paper. The Jewish Museum, New York, Gift of Lorraine and Martin Beitler, 2006-64.6. © 2016 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc / Artists Rights Society (ARS). Courtesy of Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York; Hershey Felder. Photo by Mark Garvin.?