LA CHAMBER MUSIC COMPANY - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Director
- Member of the Board
Daniel Nakawatase is a director, theatre educator, and producer whose work primarily centers around musical theatre, cultivating new works, and the impact of theatre in education and local communities. He is currently on the faculty of El Camino College's theatre department and directs all over Southern California. Prior to his appointment at El Camino College he was the Artistic Producer at Encore Theatre Group and the Director of Theatre Arts and the Academy for the Arts at St. Anthony High School. Other organizations of note he has worked with include Segerstrom Center for the Arts, California Repertory Company, Hollywood Fringe Festival, Orange County School of the Arts, Lewis Family Playhouse, and NYU Steinhardt. He has had the pleasure of collaborating with actors who have appeared in Broadway and national touring productions, including Wicked, Hairspray, The Prom, and The Lion King, to name a few. Daniel holds his MA in Educational Theatre for College and Communities from NYU and BA in Directing and Performance from California State University, Long Beach.
James Simonelli is an engineer, instrumentalist, and producer. Born in Los Angeles and a proud product of the California public school system, he holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from UC Irvine, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Aerospace Engineering from UCLA. Now working in R&D in the semiconductor industry, his work has been published in IEEE Transactions on Mechatronics and the proceedings of the International Federation of Automatic Control and American Control Conferences. While at UCLA, James played trumpet with the UCLA Bruin Marching Band, which afforded him many high-profile opportunities-performing in commercials, television, and in a special opening act for the Rolling Stones under the direction of Kenny Ortega. He has professional credits on trumpets and guitars and produces all officially-published recordings of this group. James is currently serving as Treasurer of LA Chamber Music Company.
Jonathan Stehney is a bassoonist whose focus is contemporary and experimental music. Jonathan has traveled throughout the United States as well as abroad performing new works for bassoon and contrabassoon. He has had the great opportunity to work with new composers on new ways to write for the bassoon, as well as working with known composers such as Sofia Gubaidulina, Pierre Boulez, Peter Eöetvös, Olga Neuwirth, James Tenney, Mark Menzies, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and others. Jon's studies have brought him abroad several times where he studied extensively with Pascal Gallois, Paul Riveaux and the EIC. He received his BFA in performance from Calarts in 2004, his masters and PSD from SFCM, and his DMA from SUNY Stonybrook.