WORLD PREMIERE
HERSHEY FELDER
PUCCINI
LIVE from FLORENCE
Virtual Live Performance from Italy with
Nathan Gunn, Gianna Corbisiero, Ekaterina Siurina and Charles Castronovo
Sun, March 14, 7 pm*
Tickets* | CLICK HERE
*Tickets include extended on-demand viewing access of the recording through Sunday, March 21!
Filmed, performed and streamed live on location in Lucca Italy, in the home where Giacomo Puccini was born, this world premiere features Hershey Felder and three world-renowned opera stars, including University of Illinois' Nathan Gunn, promises to be a very special event.
Hershey Felder, PUCCINI is the story of a young musician in love with the world of opera, and in particular Giacomo Puccini’s La bohème, Tosca and Madama Butterfly. When, through a series of unusual circumstances, the young musician meets the musical master himself, secrets are revealed that send the young man soaring.
With special guests, Baritone Nathan Gunn, who recently performed live at Peoria Riverfront Museum during an interview with Ed Sutkowski, as well as Soprano Gianna Corbisiero, Soprano Ekaterina Siurina and Tenor Charles Castronovo, this new Hershey Felder creation, will spur the imagination and move the musical soul.
ABOUT THE PERFORMERS
HERSEY FELDER
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 as Claude Debussy in A Paris Love Story; Hershey Felder, Tchaikovsky; Hershey Felder as Sholem Aleichem in Before Fiddler; 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 will also include 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.
NATHAN GUNN
South Bend, Indiana native Nathan Gunn is a professor and Swandlund Chair at the University of Illinois where he is co-director of Lyric Theatre @ Illinois, a comprehensive program embracing a broad continuum of opera and musical theatre, as well as the development of new works. At the Lyric Theatre @ Illinois, Gunn developed and founded the first ever Bachelor of Musical Arts in Lyric Theatre curriculum in the nation. The program is part of the School of Music at the University of Illinois and housed in the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.
Gunn recently performed live with his wife, fellow professor and opera singer Julie Jordan Gunn, at the Peoria Riverfront Museum during a virtual live interview hosted by Interesting People's Ed Sutkowski.
Gunn has performed many of opera and musical theatre’s greatest roles on the world’s most prestigious stages, including the Metropolitan Opera, the San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Seattle Opera, Royal Opera in London, Paris Opéra, Bavarian State Opera Munich, Theater an der Wien Vienna, Teatro Real Madrid, and Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie Brussels. He has been seen and heard on television, radio, video, and live simulcast performances, including the first ever Met in HD broadcast (The Magic Flute), in which he sang Papageno, one of his signature roles. Nathan has reinterpreted other classic roles such as Billy Budd, Figaro, and Don Giovanni, garnering awards including the Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording (Billy Budd) and the Metropolitan Opera’s first ever Beverly Sills Award. Gunn has also been widely acclaimed for his ability to cross over into musical theatre, including performances with the New York Philharmonic in Carousel and Camelot, the televised celebration of Stephen Sondheim’s 80th birthday, and collaborations with musical theatre stars including Mandy Patinkin, Kelli O’Hara, Audra McDonald, and Kristin Chenoweth. Gunn’s one-man autobiographical show Flying Solo, produced and written by Hershey Felder, has been lauded as a “riveting autobiographical musical [that] is a stunner both with its touching, relatable, family-centric narrative and Gunn’s entertaining, charismatic performing style.” (Broadway World).
In addition to life as a performer, educator and arts advocate, Gunn is an avid patron of the arts. Nathan and Julie Gunn consistently support pre-college music education and sponsor local cultural events in order to secure the future of the art form. The family resides in Champaign, Illinois.
GIANNA CORBISIERO
Declared “luminous” by Opera News, Gianna Corbisiero has performed the title roles in Tosca, La bohème, La traviata, Pagliacci, Suor Angelica, Gianni Schicchi, Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, The Magic Flute, Carmen, Il barbiere di Siviglia and Falstaff at major opera houses throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, under the baton of conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Kent Nagano, and Charles Dutoit. She has performed with Bryn Terfel, Renee Fleming, and Marcelo Alvarez. For Bravo Canada she recorded episodes of television’s “Opera Easy,” performing excerpts from La bohème, La traviata, Tosca and Norma, and made her cinema debut singing “O mio babbino caro” in the film Elephant Song, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Corbisiero’s many honors and awards include a special prize from the Luciano Pavarotti International Vocal Competition, Top Prize in the Canadian Music Competition, and First Prize from the Jacqueline Desmarais Foundation.
CHARLES CASTRONOVO
Charles Castronovo has been acclaimed internationally as one of the finest lyric tenors of his generation. Castronovo has sung at most of the world’s leading opera houses, including San Francisco Opera, Metropolitan Opera, Los Angeles Opera. Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Vienna State Opera, Berlin State Opera, Paris Opera, Bavarian State Opera Munich, Theatre Royale de la Monnaie Brussels, and many others. He starred in the title role of Daniel Catan’s Il Postino opposite Placido Domingo in the work’s World Premiere in Los Angeles, as well as in Paris and Santiago. His repertoire spans from the great Mozart tenor roles in Don Giovanni, Cosí fan tutte and Die Zauberflöte, to Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore and Alfredo in La traviata. In recent seasons, Castronovo won wide acclaim for his performances as the title role in Faust, Romeo in Roméo et Juliette, the Duke in Rigoletto, Rodolfo in La bohème and Tom Rakewell in The Rake’s Progress.
Tickets* | CLICK HERE
*Tickets include extended on-demand viewing access of the recording through Sunday, March 21!
Presented by Commerce Bank
May 15, 2025 - September 25, 2024 | Thursday Nights | Doors Open at 6 p.m., Performance at 7 p.m.
Join us on the Peoria Riverfront Museum's Sun Plaza for a summer music series featuring local and regional jazz artists, inspired by Preston Jackson's Bronzeville to Harlem: An American Story . This series event will take place select Thursdays from May 15, 2025 to September 25, 2025, featuring artists from the Chicago area as well as regional and local musicians. Get down and boogie with us!
Cash bar available. Food available for purchase from WRap City, founded by Branden "Chef B-Doe" Jackson. Menu items will include wraps, mac n' cheese and more!
Ticket prices
Members- $10
Non-Members- $15
Student- $7
Visionary Society-$7
Ticket price includes admission to Preston Jackson's Bronzeville to Harlem: An American Story.
Schedule of events
June 26, 2025 | Todd Kelly and the Central Illinois Jazz Orchestra ft. Maggie Sloter
Get tickets HERE
Central Illinois Jazz Orchestra, founded in 1998, is a seventeen-piece big band committed to keeping the ‘big jazz’ sound alive in central Illinois. CIJO is made up of professional and semi-professional musicians from the heart of Illinois that include music educators, business professionals, and full time performers. The group plays classic jazz charts from Count Basie, to Stan Keaton, and from Duke Ellington to Maynard Ferguson. The CIJO is fronted by trumpeter and Bradley University’s Todd Kelly. and at this performance, the vocal stylings of the one and only Maggie Sloter.
July 24, 2025 | Pippi and Daniel Music & the Experience
Get tickets HERE
Pippi Ardennia and Daniel Leahy are composers and recording artists that create intentional, soul-stirring music that ignites self-empowerment and inspires positive change. The will showcase a 9-piece jazz band to perform at this special Rhumboogie on the Plaza in July. Pippi and Daniel are songwriters and performers that have individually been in the Music and Entertainment Business for the majority of their lives. When these two dynamos connected they realized they shared the same vision and purpose for themselves and the planet. Their purpose is to create a legacy of transformational music which can change lives by allowing new perspectives and ideas to entertain the listeners. This powerful and loving couple have set the intention to restore humanity one heart at a time.
August 28, 2025 | Lenard Simpson Quartet
Get tickets HERE
Lenard Simpson is a saxophonist, composer and educator from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Lenard was mostly self-taught through high school, but his natural ability and musicianship earned him accolades such as membership in the esteemed Grammy Camp Jazz Session, and an outstanding soloist award at the Mingus Jazz Competition in New York City. Lenard has had the opportunity to play and travel with artists such as pianist and composer-Billy Childs, Kurt Elling, Marquis Hill, and Clayton Cameron. Lenard received a B.M in Jazz performance at Northern Illinois University. While studying at NIU, Lenard was awarded first place in Chicago’s esteemed Luminarts Jazz Competition. Upon graduation, Lenard moved to Chicago and soon became one of the city’s top call saxophonists playing sideman to legendary local drummers, George Fludas and Charles Heath. Lenard’s trio has appeared at premier clubs and jazz festivals throughout the Chicago and Milwaukee area. Lenard recently graduated from the Thelonious Monk Institute Fellowship, which has since been renamed to the Herbie Hancock Institute where he was selected by a panel of Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, James Newton and Ambrose Akinmusire.
September 25, 2025 | Preston Jackson and Friends | Season Finale!
Get tickets HERE
American painter, sculptor, educator, and musician, Preston Jackson is bringing some of the best of Peoria's jazz scene to the grand finale of Rhumboogie on the Plaza. We’re ending our Rhumboogie 2025 series by highlighting the inspiration of the entire series: Preston Jackson’s Bronzeville to Harlem: An American Story. Joined by some of the most experienced musicians in the area, Preston Jackson and Friends performing at the Peoria Riverfront Museum is always a delight. See Preston himself, Judy Page, Mike Nellas, Manny Lopez II, Manny Lopez III and John Miller in the final sendoff of summer, right here at the Peoria Riverfront Museum.
Rhumboogie on the Plaza is presented by Commerce Bank
Sponsored by Linda Beth and Ed Sutkowski, Visionary Society, Friends of Bronzeville to Harlem and Friends of Performance
FREE with General Admission
Join us at the Peoria Riverfront Museum and make the most of your visit with tours and storytimes themed around current exhibition The World's Largest Dinosaurs , presented by the Gilmore Foundation.
Earn passport points on each activity. Learn more about the Peoria Riverfront Museums Achievement Passport and how your family can win a trip to New York City today!
Dino-Mite Storytimes | 11 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. every Thursday and Saturday
A gallery guide will take you into The World's Largest Dinosaurs, presented by the Gilmore Foundation for a short storytime under the amazing, true to life models of the largest dinosaurs to ever walk the earth. After the story, explore the world of Sauropods, the titans of the dinosaur world! Earn 10 achievement passport points per storytime
Dig Deep Dino Tours | 1 p.m. every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday
Four special tours through The World's Largest Dinosaurs, presented by the Gilmore Foundation! Completely all four Dig Deep Dino Tours and receive a FREE ticket to our Dino Family Trivia event on August 2, 2025. All Deep Dive Dino Tours are worth 100 achievement passport points.
Tours:
Dino Diet- Learn about what the Sauropods ate to sustain their massive bodies
Dino Giants- Learn why these amazing animals grew to their huge size.
Dino Differences- Learn about the differences between dinosaurs, and what makes a sauropod so special among so many amazing species
Dino Detectives- Ever wonder about how these pieces of history were found? Put on your detective hat and learn more about the Paleontology profession!
Sponsored by Visionary Society and Family Fun Club
Wednesday, June 25, 2025 | 5:15 p.m.
The state of the museum is strong! Join us at the Peoria Riverfront Museum as we look back on a fantastic year, and look forward to another one, even better.
"State of the Museum" presentation led by Board Chair Todd Baker and President and CEO of the Peoria Riverfront Museum, John Morris.
RSVP by Friday, June 20, 2025
Visionary Society Concierge | 309-863-3066
Development@peoriariverfrontmuseum.org
If you cannot attend in person, stream the State of the Museum live HERE or check in with the QR code below.
Peoria Riverfront Museum
The only multidisciplinary museum of its kind in the nation, the Peoria Riverfront Museum uses art, science, history and achievement to inspire confidence, lifelong learning, and talent. Since opening in 2012, the privately funded museum has provided more than one million experiences through major exhibitions, a permanent collection, interactive galleries, a dome planetarium, giant screen theater and educational programming including curricula-related student visits. The AAM-accredited, Smithsonian-affiliated private nonprofit museum is supported by more than 5,000 members and donors, and is housed in a county-owned LEED Gold-certified building on a campus overlooking the Illinois River.
Laser Spirit of America
Saturday July 5 | 12:15 PM
Enjoy a family friendly patriotic music show in this Saturday matinee time.
$5 Visionary Society Members | $7 Members | $10 Public
Buy tickets online now click here.
Tickets & more info also available at the Museum or by phone at 309.686.7000.
Sunday, July 13, 2025 | 12 p.m. - 5 p.m. | Museum-wide
Thanks to the generous support of Art Bridges Foundation, every second Sunday at the Peoria Riverfront Museum is FREE to the public!
Join us Sunday, July 13, 2025 from 12 p.m. - 5 p.m. as we celebrate Access for All day at the Peoria Riverfront Museum.
This Access for All day at the Peoria Riverfront Museum, enjoy make and take art activities, planetarium shows, guided tours, and so much more.
Schedule:
Museum-wide Activities: 12 p.m.-3 p.m.
Bradley Chemistry Club: Demos | 1-3 pm | Lobby | 50 points
Have a love for all things science? Come to the Bradley Chem Club table and learn what Dr. Campbell and friends have in store!
Renae Kerrigan: The Amethyst Story | 1 p.m. | Giant Screen Theater | 100 Points
Come learn from Curator of Science and Director of the Dome Planetarium Renae Karrigan about how we got our remarkable Amethyst Tower and more! This lecture will be about 30 minutes.
The Science of Art | 12:30 p.m. | Starting in the Lobby | 100 points
Join Gallery Guide Abbey McComb for a 30-minute tour throughout the museum! Today, we will explore how minerals are used in art.
The Science of Art | 2:30 p.m. | Starting in the Lobby | 100 points
Join Gallery Guide Abbey McComb for a 30-minute tour throughout the museum! Today, we will explore how minerals are used in art.
Planetarium Shows | 1 p.m., 2 p.m., 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. | In the Dome Planetarium | 10 points
Facepainting by Collin | 12 p.m.- 3 p.m. | Lobby
Learn more about the museum's Achievement Passport, and how to earn points HERE
Re-member, members get double points! Earn 100 points and receive a FREE prize!
Generous support provided by Art Bridges Foundation's Access for All program.
Saturday, July 19, 2025 | Tour at 5:30 p.m. | Screening at 6:30 p.m.
The magical world of Night at the Museum comes to life in the Peoria Riverfront Museum's Movie Mixers: Night at the Museum!
Join us for a special evening at the museum perfect for all ages, featuring a screening of Night at the Museum and a tour through The World's Largest Dinosaurs , presented by the Gilmore Foundation. This tour will be led by the museum's curator of science and director of the Dome Planetarium, Renae Kerrigan. A hands-on craft will be available for all ages!
The American Museum of Natural History, from which The World's Largest Dinosaurs is on loan, is the setting in which the uproarious comedy of Night at the Museum takes place. There's no better time to immerse yourself in art, science, history and engagement.
Tickets
Adult: $16
Child: $14
Member Adult:$14
Member Child: $12
Visionary Society members attend free!
Get tickets HERE
For those 21+, there will be a bar available, non-alcoholic beverages also on sale.
Sponsored by Visionary Society, Film Society and Family Fun Club
Wednesday, July 23, 2025 | 6:30 p.m. | Zoom presentation in the Giant Screen Theater
Join us at the Peoria Riverfront Museum and discover dinosaurs- from the largest ever, to the tiniest!
Paleontologist at the American Music of Natural History, Dr. Benson helped with research for current exhibition The World's Largest Dinosaurs , presented by the Gilmore Foundation. Now, he's working on finding the world's TINIEST dinosaur! Learn more about the size of dinosaurs, how they're weighed, and how we know how big they were in this special Zoom presentation.
Tickets
Adult- $5
Child- $5
Get your tickets HERE
Members attend for FREE!
Sponsored by Visionary Society, Friends of Science
Pub Night Under the Stars: New Era of Astronomy – The Vera Rubin Telescope
Friday, August 8
7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
A new telescope is opening the skies to astronomers better than ever before, set on the Andes Mountains in Chile. See some of the first images from the Vera Rubin Telescope and learn about this new great science tool from Planetarium Director Renae Kerrigan, who has toured the site before it opened!
Your evening will also include a tour of the night sky, the latest images from the James Webb Space Telescope, and a flight to the edge of space and back.
Each guest receives an individual snack box featuring nachos, cheese, pretzels, fruit, nuts & more; up to three servings of beer, seltzer or soda; and an entertaining evening under the stars.
Doors open at 6:50 PM
The program will be in two parts, allowing time to socialize and get more refreshments between shows.
$45 Members | $55 Others
Tickets can be purchased HERE.
Ages 21+
Additional questions? Contact Renae Kerrigan at rkerrigan@peoriariverfrontmuseum.org or 309.863.3030.
All supplies provided for programs unless otherwise noted. All paid programs require a minimum number of participants to run or will be canceled two business days prior to the start date. Pre-registration required.
