Whitefish, Montana
HEART THEATRE’S JESÚS DANIEL HERNÁNDEZ PERFORMS IN WHITEFISH, MONTANA, FEATURING BROADWAY VETERAN MIKE ELDRED, WITH MITCHELL ZEIDWIG AT THE PIANO, FOR ONE NIGHT ONLY
Heart Theatre brings Jesús Daniel Hernández, an Army veteran and tenor trained at the Washington National Opera, to North Valley Music School for a free concert on September 26, with Mitchell Zeidwig at the piano and Mike Eldred as a guest artist.
WHITEFISH, MONTANA — On Saturday, September 26, 2026, at 7 p.m., Heart Theatre, in partnership with the environmental organization Corazón Latino and Amazing Place Music, will bring Jesús Daniel Hernández, The Walking Tenor, to North Valley Music School for a free concert of opera and the Neapolitan music he loves, along with boleros and a few surprises.
Hernández was born in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, and came to the United States as a teenager. He later joined the U.S. Army and served in Iraq. In 2007, after attending a Plácido Domingo concert in San Antonio, Hernández found a way to sing for the legendary tenor. Domingo listened and invited him to join the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program at Washington National Opera.
Hernández went on to perform leading operatic roles in the United States and Europe. As The Walking Tenor, he also takes his music outside the opera house, singing for people wherever he finds them.
The concert also falls on National Public Lands Day, the nation's largest single-day volunteer effort for public lands, celebrated on Saturday, September 26. The date has special meaning because of Heart Theatre’s relationship with its sister organization, Corazón Latino, whose conservation work includes a longstanding partnership with the USDA Forest Service.
“When you experience the power of Jesús’s voice, you understand the power of the human voice,” said Stacy Whittle, Artistic Director of Heart Theatre. “There is just pure joy in the way he sings. That's why we’re bringing Jesús to Whitefish. We want the community to experience that joy for themselves.”
Joining Hernández at the piano will be Mitchell Zeidwig, who now lives in Whitefish. A Juilliard-trained concert pianist, Zeidwig has performed at Carnegie Hall and with orchestras worldwide.
Whitefish tenor and Executive Director of Amazing Place Music, Mike Eldred, will join Hernández to sing John Denver's “Perhaps Love.” Eldred has spent more than four decades performing professionally. His Broadway credits include Les Misérables, where he performed the role of Jean Valjean, and the original Broadway cast of The Civil War.
The concert is under Whittle’s artistic direction and is produced by Felipe Benítez, Co-Founder of Heart Theatre and Executive Director of Corazón Latino.
Heart Theatre calls itself a theatre on the run because it was never meant to live inside one building. Whittle and Benítez founded the company to take professional theatre and music directly into communities. Sometimes that means producing a play. Other times it means bringing an artist like Hernández to a place like Whitefish and inviting musicians who live there to become part of the night.
Recent Heart Theatre work has included scenes from Terrence McNally's Master Class, with Whittle as Maria Callas in both the U.S. and Spain. The company is also developing work inspired by the life and music of Mario Lanza.
Heart Theatre works to keep its performances accessible to all, including free community events like the September 26 concert. That accessibility depends on people who are willing to help make the work possible, and Heart Theatre has found plenty of them in Whitefish.
“We are so grateful for the way Whitefish has welcomed us,” Whittle said. “Local legend, musician, and all-around amazing person Bill Montgomery believed in this from the beginning. So many people here have given their time and helped us make this happen. We hope this is just the beginning of our relationship with Whitefish.”
Heart Theatre depends on community support to take its work on the road while keeping performances like this one free. The idea behind the company has always been simple: where you live or what you can afford to pay for a ticket shouldn’t determine whether you get to experience great art.
You don’t need to know anything about opera to come. You just need to show up.
Come spend the evening with Heart Theatre.
THE WALKING TENOR IN CONCERT
Presented by Heart Theatre / Teatro del Corazón
Saturday, September 26, 2026
7:00 p.m.
North Valley Music School
1998 River Lakes Parkway
Whitefish, Montana 59937
Admission is free.
Jesús Daniel Hernández, The Walking Tenor
Accompanied by Mitchell Zeidwig
Special appearance by Mike Eldred
Artistic Directed by Stacy Whittle
Produced by Felipe Benítez
ABOUT HEART THEATRE / TEATRO DEL CORAZÓN
Heart Theatre / Teatro del Corazón is a theatre on the run founded by Stacy Whittle and Felipe Benítez.
The company brings professional theatre and music into communities and nontraditional spaces. Work includes the development of Master Class, concerts, and original projects created with artists in the United States and abroad.
Heart Theatre believes geography and the price of a ticket shouldn't determine who gets to experience great art. The company relies on donors and local partners to help keep that work accessible.
For more information about Heart Theatre or to support its work, visit www.HeartTheatre.net.
MEDIA CONTACT
Stacy Whittle
Artistic Director
Heart Theatre / Teatro del Corazón
202-664-4013
stacylwhittle@gmail.com
Heart Theatre AI Policy
Heart Theatre works with artists, educators, musicians, writers, filmmakers, students, audiences, and cultural partners from across the globe. We use technology when it helps people make stronger work, reach more people, and protect the time and attention that our work requires. We don’t use technology because it’s cool, and we don’t treat artificial intelligence as a replacement for the people who give the work its meaning. We need humans!
AI is already part of the creative world. It can help with research, early drafts, translation support, captions, planning, grant materials, scheduling, and communication. It can also make work feel anonymous when people use it carelessly. It can copy artists, expose private material, invent facts, flatten language, and make a sentence look finished without any human input. Heart Theatre’s position is clear: AI may assist the work, but people will always lead the work.
Theatre comes from our souls. It depends on our physical presence, our voices, the rehearsal room, the audience, and the trust that forms when people share time together. AI can support some of the preparation around that experience, but it cannot replace the experience itself. Heart Theatre will not use AI to replace actors, writers, directors, teachers, musicians, designers, students, or community participants.
We may use AI to move through practical work more efficiently, but a person must make the final decision. A person decides whether the language sounds true, whether a translation carries the right meaning, whether the material respects the story, and whether the work should carry Heart Theatre’s name. AI can help organize a draft or compare ideas, but it cannot take responsibility for anything we publish, teach, rehearse, perform, fundraise with, or share in public.
Heart Theatre will not present AI-generated material as original human work. We will not use AI to imitate a living artist’s voice, face, writing, performance, or style without permission. If AI plays a meaningful role in something public, we will be honest about that in plain language. We do not need to label every internal use of AI, but we will not hide it when technology shapes something an audience, student, funder, or partner experiences.
We respect artists and creative labor. Heart Theatre will not put private scripts, rehearsal notes, voice recordings, images, music, unfinished writing, or performance material into AI tools without permission from the people connected to that material. We also will not use AI as a cheap way around work that should be done by a paid artist. New tools can support the creative process, but they should not erase the skill, training, and imagination that artists bring to the room.
We will protect the people who share their stories with us. Theatre often depends on trust, especially in education and community-based work. A student may write something personal in a workshop. A community member may speak about family, loss, illness, or fear. A partner, donor, artist, or colleague may send private information. Heart Theatre will not put that material into AI tools unless we have permission and know the tool can protect it.
AI can help make some materials easier to access. It can support captions, summaries, plain-language drafts, and early translations. Those uses can help more people find our work. Final public language, especially in Spanish or any other language, should be reviewed by someone who understands the language and the culture behind it. A machine can compare words. A person knows when the sentence carries the right feeling.
We will check AI-assisted work before we use it publicly. AI can sound confident and still be wrong. It can miss certain facts, history, humor, pain, context, and cultural meaning. No public material should go out under Heart Theatre’s name unless a person has reviewed it for accuracy, privacy, fairness, and artistic value.
Heart Theatre will also share what we learn. Many artists, teachers, small theatres, cultural organizations, and community partners are trying to understand AI without losing the human part of their work. We are learning that in real time too. When we find a useful practice, a mistake worth avoiding, or a better way to protect artists and participants, we will share it through workshops, public conversations, written guides, and the projects we build with others.
We believe theatre people have something important to offer the AI conversation. We understand rehearsal rooms. We understand trust, voice, consent, timing, authorship, and what happens when a choice lands in front of an audience. Those instincts matter now more than ever. Heart Theatre will help artists and partners use new tools with confidence while keeping people at the center of the work.
Heart Theatre will keep using new tools, because artists have always worked with the tools of their time. The question is not whether technology belongs near art. The question is whether it serves the work or weakens it. We will use AI when it helps us prepare with more care, communicate more clearly, or make the work easier for people to access. We will leave it out when it copies an artist, risks someone’s privacy, flattens the language, or removes the human decision that theatre requires.
AI is a tool. Heart Theatre remains responsible for how we use it.