TheatreWorks Silicon Valley Presents Final Week of Streaming for Hershey Felder's BEFORE FIDDLER

On-demand streaming is available this week to watch Hershey Felder as Sholem Aleichem in BEFORE FIDDLER. Presented by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley in partnership with Hershey Felder Presents Live from Florence, this World Premiere was livestreamed to a worldwide audience on Sunday, February 7, dazzling thousands of theatre and music fans who tuned in from home to watch this intriguing musical play exploring beloved Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem's life and characters, including the 'Tevye the Milkman' stories that inspired Fiddler on the Roof, while delving into soul-stirring Klezmer music that inspired the musical's score. Performed by virtuoso pianist/performer Hershey Felder and acclaimed Italian musical ensemble Klezmerata Fiorentina, the new work was broadcast from rich, filmic settings in Italy in locations where the writer lived and worked.The public may still reserve on-demand streaming access to view Hershey Felder as Sholem Aleichem in BEFORE FIDDLER through February 14, 2021. More information and streaming access ($55 per household) is available at TheatreWorks.org.

Decades before the beloved musical Fiddler on the Roof first delighted worldwide audiences, there was Sholem Aleichem and his beloved character of 'Tevye the Milkman.' When he was only 24 years old, Aleichem published his first story, Tsvey Shteyner ("Two Stones"), and by 1890, he had become a central figure in Yiddish literature. In this performance, Felder portrays Sholem Aleichem, offering audiences the story of what happened 'Before Fiddler.' Harking back to a time before songs like "Tradition," "If I Were a Rich Man" and "Sunrise, Sunset" first beguiled audiences, Felder shares Klezmer, the music of the Old World, said to imitate talking, laughing, weeping, and singing, in which musicians spoke to audiences in song.

Bringing this rich music to life is Klezmerata Fiorentina, a quartet of musicians of the famed Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (artistic director and conductor Zubin Mehta). The quartet consists of violinist and violist Igor Polesitsky; clarinetist Riccardo Crocilla; accordionist and bassoonist Francesco Furlanich; and double bass player Riccardo Donati.

BEFORE FIDDLER - Live from Florence is directed by Felder & Stefano Decarli, with associate direction by Trevor Hay. Production design is by Hershey Felder, with film production and live editing by the DeCarli Live film company. Live broadcast and sound design production are by Erik Carstensen, line producer is Annette Nixon, production and broadcast development by Meghan Maiya. Costumes and Hair are by Isabelle Gerbe, with scenic construction directed by Pierre Gerbe.

Hershey Felder (Writer & Performer). 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, consistently breaking box office records. 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. Previous broadcasts have 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 as 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.

Felder has dazzled audiences at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, where regional premieres of Our Great Tchaikovsky and Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin, as well as the World Premieres of Hershey Felder as Claude Debussy in A PARIS LOVE STORY and Hershey Felder: Beethoven have set all-time sales and attendance records. The Pianist of Willesden Lane, for which Felder served as adaptor, director, and designer, was enjoyed by TheatreWorks audiences in early 2020.

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