Company Leadership

OUR EXECUTIVE BOARD

The Gilbert & Sullivan Light Opera Company is governed by a seven-member executive board, elected by the company’s general membership (its performers and offstage personnel) for two-year terms. The board consists of a president, a vice president, a treasurer, a secretary and three members-at-large. The 2020/2021 board consists of the following great officers of state:

Louisa Cabezudo-Arnold (President) is excited about her upcoming appearance in the ensemble of the company’s 2021 production of Very Truly Yours. She has also been seen onstage in The Pirates of Penzance, Patience and as the $60 million diva Ava Higgs-Livingston in Lois Findlay’s A Marriage by the Book. Louisa is a New York City science teacher who enjoys singing as much as she does working with children.

Tamara Shyngle (Vice-President/Graphics) has been a member of the company since 2004. While she always enjoys performing, she has found additional interest in working behind the scenes as well, serving as stage manager for The Mikado (2012). Her time onstage has included ensemble work in various shows, revues and plays. She has been seen as Isabel in The Pirates of Penzance (2010) and as Fleta in Iolanthe (2016), and also was a part of the Harlem ensemble in Star Playhouse’s 2010 production of Ragtime. A resident of Brentwood, she is a longtime board member who served a previous stint as president during the 2000s.

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Jordan Breslow (Treasurer) Jordan is now in his tenth season with GaSLOCoLI: which included both principal roles in Patience (Major Murgatroyd), The Gondoliers (Antonio), and A Gilbert & Sullivan Christmas Carol (Bob Cratchit) as well as various ensemble appearances in The Sorcerer, The Mikado, Ruddigore, Thespis, HMS Pinafore, and The Pirates of Penzance. He had previously performed with the Suburban Players of Wantagh in Anything Goes, Annie Get Your Gun, and Girl Crazy and as the title character in a Camp Kinder Ring production of The Wiz. Jordan was a member of the Binghamton Crosbys, the only all-male a cappella singing ensemble at Binghamton University, and continues as their alumni coordinator. He has served multiple terms on the GaSLOCoLI Executive Board as business manager, publicity chairperson, and is their current treasurer.

Delaney Page  (Secretary/Webmaster) Delaney Page has been a member of the GaSLOCoLI since the 2014/15 production of H.M.S. Pinafore.  She has performed in the company’s productions of Iolanthe as Celia, in Pirates of Penzance as Kate, in The Gondoliers as Vittoria, in A G&S Christmas Carol as The Balladeer & The Ghost of Christmas Future, was set to perform as the Performing Understudy for Katisha in The Mikado, as Sparkieon/Chorus in Very Truly Yours, Gilbert and Sullivan: The Movie, and as the 2nd Bridesmaid in both casts of Trial by Zoom.  She has also worked as a Board Member/Director of Fund Development for the company starting in 2019. She has also performed in Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors in the role of The Mother and Puccini’s La Boheme as well as The Music Man, South Pacific, Pippin, and Milk and Honey.  Delaney has also sung with the Long Island Chorale, Long Island Cabaret Theatre, MPAC, Patio Players, and South Shore Theatricals.

Ben Salers (Board Member) For the past several years, the Light Opera Company has been like family for Ben, a transplant from Mississippi. He originally had the privilege of playing Sillimon in Thespis (in Tom Shepard’s spectacular version of Arthur Sullivan’s score), and has gone on to play various roles in a number of other G&S operas, most recently appearing as the Duke of Plaza Toro in The Gondoliers and in Very Truly Yours, Gilbert and Sullivan: The Movie.

Karina Vartanian (Board Member/Social Media) is thrilled to be a first time member of the GASLOCOLI board! She is a senior in high school and plans on attending college for classical vocal performance. Her past credits with the company include “Cheapside Jackie” in A Gilbert and Sullivan Christmas Carol and ensemble in The Gondoliers, Patience, and The Pirates of Penzance. She was excited to be making her lead role debut as “Peep Bo” in The Mikado, but it was unfortunately cancelled due to the pandemic. She was a solo finalist at Carnegie Hall for the Armenian Youth Talent Competition in 2019 and also was a first place solo finalist in the Elite Music Competition whose Carnegie Hall concert was meant to be in April of 2020. She was a second place solo finalist in the Concert Festival Competition whose April 2020 performance at Symphony Space was also cancelled. In June of 2020, she composed, performed, and produced an original composition and video entitled “Thank You for the Memories” as a tribute to the teachers and the graduating class of 2020. She is excited for what the 2020-2021 season has in store and is ecstatic to work alongside a talented and dedicated board.

Kara Vertucci (Vice-President) Kara Vertucci is a new member to the GaSLOCoLI Board but has been a member of the company for many years, performing as Josephine in H.M.S. Pinafore, Phyllis in Iolanthe, The Mikado: A Long Island Fantasy and Very Truly Yours, Gilbert and Sullivan and many more performing credits and leading roles to her name.

OUR DIRECTORS

Gayden Wren (Director, Very Truly Yours, Gilbert and Sullivan & Princess Ida) has been a member of the company since the 1970s. During that time, he has directed The Sorcerer, H.M.S. Pinafore, Patience (twice), Iolanthe (three times), Princess Ida (twice), The Mikado, Ruddigore, The Yeomen of the Guard, The Gondoliers and Utopia, Ltd., as well as A Gilbert & Sullivan Christmas Carol; Very Truly Yours, Gilbert & Sullivan; and a number of staged readings of Gilbert plays. He is the author of A Most Ingenious Paradox: The Art of Gilbert & Sullivan (Oxford University Press, 2001) and the upcoming Only in Theatrical Performances: Reading ‘The Mikado.’

Sara Elliot Holiday (Producer/Technical Director, Very Truly Yours) cut her teeth with the Texas Gilbert and Sullivan Company in the 1990s, and went on to Oberlin College and the Gilbert & Sullivan Players there.  She made her Light Opera Company debut as Angelina in Trial by Jury in 1997, and has played various roles with the company ever since, including music director of Utopia, Limited and Iolanthe.  Her favorite Gilbert & Sullivan roles include Patience, Yum-Yum and Casilda, as well as all the female roles in The World According to Gilbert & Sullivan and Very Truly Yours, Gilbert & Sullivan, Hilarion in Gilbert’s The Princess and, perhaps most of all, Bob Cratchit in A Gilbert & Sullivan Christmas Carol.  In her spare time she is head of events at the New York Society Library and author of A Thousand Dances: A Novel of the British Blues Boom (Coral Press, 2018)..

Dr. Leonard Lehrman, former Metropolitan Opera Assistant Chorus Master, first President of the Long Island Composers Alliance, Founder & Laureate Conductor of the Jüdischer Musiktheaterverein Berlin, and Founder/Director of the Metropolitan Philharmonic Chorus, has performed in TRIAL BY JURY and numerous operas, musicals, and G&S excerpts, but this will be his first time conducting this repertoire with full chorus and orchestra.  He received his M.F.A. and D.M.A. from Cornell, following an A.B. from Harvard with additional work with Nadia Boulanger, Boris Goldovsky, Leonard Bernstein, and at Indiana University in Opera Conducting. His works (263, to date, including 12 operas, 7 musicals, 19 adaptations, 81 translations, 51 choral works and over 300 songs) have been heard on 6 continents, 18 CDs, 4000+ videos with 1,000,000+ YouTube views.
Website: ljlehrman.artists-in-residence.com

LIFETIME MEMBERS

The following individuals have been elected lifetime members of the Gilbert & Sullivan Light Opera Company of Long Island, in recognition of their unique and valuable services to the company over the course of many years. Most of them are still with us; some have moved on to other pursuits, some have passed away, but all have made substantial contributions to everything we do, whether or not they are involved in a particular production.

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