Primary Members of the Restoring Natoma Team
Natoma Musicologist: Glen W. Clugston, a Musical Director/Conductor, has worked extensively in American musical theatre, with conducting credits in leading regional theaters and opera companies, such as Kennedy Center, Los Angeles Music Center, Michigan Opera Theater, Augusta Opera and the Paper Mill Playhouse. Clugston notably served as Musical Director for the first production, with piano, of Victor Herbert’s Natoma in nearly one-hundred years at the White Barn Theater in Westport, Connecticut. Educated at the University of Kansas in Pittsburgh and the Julliard School of Music, Clugston has concertized in 22 countries around the world, including the Berlin Festival and the Osaka Festival in Japan. Co-founder of New York’s American Opera Repertory Company, a New York highlight included Halevy’s “La Juive,” a work which hadn’t been presented in NY since Caruso’s time and Mascagni’s “L’Amico Fritz”. His opera experience also includes conducting “La Boheme”, “La Traviata” and “Madame Butterfly” for the Philadelphia Lyric Opera. Clugston has presented successful U.S. premiere concerts of Antonio Vivaldi’s operatic works, reconstructed from manuscript obtained from the Turin, Italy Library. Most recently he was music director and conductor for the premiere of “The Cantata for Lord Mountbatten”, for chorus and orchestra, commissioned by Lady Mountbatten, in Manhattan. Recording: Decca, Toshiba, Original Cast Records.
Natoma Restorationist: Peter Hilliard has utilized the software Finale to input all notes, instructions and notations found on the original handwritten Herbert scores for the opera. Hilliard holds degrees in composition from the San Francisco Conservatory and in musical theatre writing from NYU. His operas and art songs with librettist Matt Boresi have been recognized by the National Opera Association, the National Association of Teachers of Singing and have been performed all over the United States. He is an adjunct professor at Villanova, and Cairn Universities. Hilliard is the resident musical director of the Savoy Company, the Abington Choral Club, and the Graduate Theatre program at Villanova.
Natoma Conductor: Gerald Steichen’s varied career includes symphony, opera, ballet, Broadway and chamber music. He currently holds the positions of Music Director of the Ridgefield Symphony (Connecticut) and Principal Pops Conductor of the Utah Symphony/Opera. He spent sixteen seasons as the Associate Conductor/Principal Pops Conductor of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra; and is a frequent guest conductor for the Boston Pops Orchestra and the New Jersey Symphony. Steichen has appeared with the symphonies of Detroit, Indianapolis, Columbus, Oklahoma City, Eastern Connecticut, Purchase (New York), Hartford, Wheeling, Memphis, and the New York Pops and the Little Orchestra Society (NYC). International appearances include the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo City Symphony, the NDR Philharmonie Hannover at the Braunschweig Festival, and the Norwegian Radio Symphony. Steichen toured nationally as associate conductor with The Phantom of the Opera, The Secret Garden, and Peter Pan and was the assistant conductor of CATS in New York City for two years. He appears regularly with Ballet West, Utah. Steichen made his Lincoln Center debut at the State Theatre conducting performances of La Bohème. He conducted for New York City Opera for ten seasons, leading performances ranging from L’elisir d’amore to Dead Man Walking. He led the New York City Opera Orchestra and soloists in a live WQXR broadcast of Wall to Wall Opera from New York’s Symphony Space. He has also conducted the Utah Opera, Virginia Opera, Anchorage Opera, New Jersey Opera Theater, Glimmerglass Opera (Cooperstown, NY), and Opera East Texas. Originally from Tonkawa, Oklahoma, Maestro Steichen holds degrees from Northern Oklahoma College, Oklahoma City University and the University of Southern California.
Natoma Producer: Alyce Mott is Artistic Director of the Victor Herbert Renaissance Project LIVE! and the owner of VHSource, LLC, an online digital music publisher of original performance materials for the composer Victor Herbert. She is also a Victor Herbert librettist, with new produced librettos for Babes In Toyland, Cyrano de Bergerac, Naughty Marietta, Mlle Modiste, The Red Mill, Sweethearts, Eileen, The Serenade and The Fortune Teller, the majority of which were produced at New York City’s Lincoln Center by Maestro Dino Anagnost and The Little Orchestra Society of New York. Mott and Anagnost were creative partners for the majority of titles listed with Anagnost compiling the scores to fit Mott’s libretti. The pair always remained true to Herbert’s compositional material altering only song order and the occasional character assignment of a particular song. Mott’s librettos are always true to the spirit of the original period and settings with the addition of character depth and conflict without resulting to “modernization.” Most recently, Mott has added the title of Herbert lecturer to her credits with appearances at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. and before the Lyric Theatre of San Jose’s recent production of Herbert’s Cyrano de Bergerac with a entirely new libretto by Mott.
Fiscal Sponsor and Assistant Producer: Dan Pantano of Concert Operetta Theatre (“COT”) of Philadelphia began working on Restoring Natoma during the late summer of 2011 to facilitate receiving grant monies for the project. COT has proven to be a perfect match for this project as Dan and his organization are dedicated to presenting, preserving, and educating audiences about operetta by focusing on a minimalist production concept which highlights the story and the music, bringing the production closer to the audience in an intimate setting. The COT contribution to the Philadelphia Arts Culture has been nineteen operettas, two USA premieres, and twelve Philadelphia premieres as well as the introduction of over one hundred forty new performers to Philly audiences both on its stage as well as in the pit of COT productions. Many have gone on to perform at The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Deutches Opern Berlin, Staatsoper Vienna, La Scala Milan, Paris Opera, to mention but a few.