HERBIE J PILATO

Born and raised in Rochester, New York, Herbie J Pilato is a Los Angeles-based writer, producer, director, actor, TV personality, and singer/songwriter.

His eclectic list of critically-acclaimed pop-culture/media tie-in books includes the just-published 12 Best Secrets of Christmas: A Treasure House of December Memories Revealed (Archway Publishing, 2022), Mary: The Mary Tyler Moore Story (Jacobs Brown Press, 2019), Dashing, Daring and Debonair: TV’s Top Male Icons From The ’50s, ’60s, And ’70s (Taylor Trade, 2016), Glamour, Gidgets and the Girl Next Door: Television’s Iconic Women From The ’50s, ’60s, And ’70s (Taylor Trade, 2014), The Essential Elizabeth Montgomery: A Guide To Her Magical Performances (Taylor Trade, 2013), Twitch Upon A Star: The Bewitched Life And Career of Elizabeth Montgomery (Taylor Trade, 2012), NBC & ME: My Life As A Page In A Book (Bear Manor Media, 2008), The Bionic Book: The Six Million Dollar Man And The Bionic Woman Reconstructed (Bear Manor Media, 2008), The Kung Fu Book Of Wisdom (Tuttle, 1995), The Kung Fu Book Of Caine (Tuttle, 1993), and The Bewitched Book (Dell, 1992).

Pilato recently as a consultant and audio commentator for the Saturn-Award-nominated Blu-ray release of The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman, and as a consultant and on-screen commentator for CNN’s hit eight-part series, History of the Sitcom. He also worked on various Blu-ray, DVD, broadcast, and cable TV documentaries such as Bravo’s 100 Greatest TV Characters, Bewitched: The True Hollywood Story, David Carradine: The E! True Hollywood Story, A&E’s Biography of Lee Majors, TLC’s Behind the Fame specials about The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Bob Newhart Show, L.A. Law and Hill Street Blues, the Syfy Channel’s Sciography series, and the TV Guide Channel’s hit five-part series, 100 Moments That Changed TV, among others.

In addition to his books, Pilato has written for the Television Academy at Emmys.com and Emmy Magazine and has contributed to several other media outlets, such as Closer Magazine, and TVWriter.com, for which he has served as Contributing Editor Emeritus for over twenty-five years.

In 2010, Pilato established The Classic TV Preservation Society, a formal 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to the positive influence of classic television shows. In 2019, he served as a host and co-executive producer on Then Again with Herbie J Pilato, the hit classic TV talk show that premiered on Amazon Prime and Shout! Factory TV.

Pilato’s upcoming books include Retro Active Television: An In-Depth Perspective of Classic TV’s Social Circuitry (Headline Books, 2023), and biographies of Sean Connery and Diana Rigg. 

CLARA HASLOP

In 2018 Clara made her Carnegie Hall debut as a top-prize winner of the AFAF International Concerto Competition and was invited to perform the Grieg piano concerto with the Kostroma Symphony in Russia. She has performed under noted conductors Uri Segal, Gaddiel Dombrowner and John Roscigno with the Thousand Oaks Philharmonic, L.A. Doctors Symphony and Virtuosi Brunensis Virtuosi Orchestra in Italy.

Clara was invited by Steinway & Sons in April 2020 to be their young showcase artist on the first Steinway Virtual Masterclass with Christopher O’Riley. She is a prizewinner of international piano competitions such as the Bradshaw & Buono International Piano Competition, International Youth Piano Competition, American Protégé International Piano Competition and Kathryn Gawartin Chopin Competition.

Major venues at which she has performed are Disney Hall, Carnegie Hall, Zipper Hall, Cypress Hall, Sala dei Notari (Italy) and the Thousand Oaks Performing Arts Center.

She has participated in numerous international piano festivals, including Music Fest Perugia in Italy, Puerto Piano International Festival in Puerto Rico, the John Perry International Piano Academy, Vivace Matera International Music Festival, International Philadelphia Young Pianists Academy, Aloha International Piano Festival and the Colburn Young Artists Summer Academy.

Clara was honored to receive a private lesson with Emanuel Ax at Disney Hall. She has performed in masterclasses with Gary Graffman, Simone Dinnerstein, Jerome Lowenthal, Oxana Yablonskaya, Alexander Kobrin, Jon Nakamatsu, John Perry, Arthur Greene, Roberto Plano, Alan Chow and Yoshikazu Nagai.

Clara has studied extensively with Rufus Choi, Dmitry Rachmanov and Ory Shihor. In the summer of 2019 she decided to pursue her undergraduate Piano Performance degree one year earlier than planned and completed both her Junior and Senior High School credits in one year to pursue her dream.

In 2020 Clara started at the Manhattan School of Music as a scholarship student of Prof. Jeffrey Cohen having been admitted at age 17, seven years after she began her piano studies.

Clara has created a transcription of Holst’s “The Planets” for solo piano and plans to perform concerts that include the entire Planets suite with pictures of up-close locations on each planet projected onto a screen. She loves to improvise and is also a writer – currently writing a dystopian trilogy.