 Bergeret was ambitious, and he wanted his company to grow and become fully professional.In May 1979, NYGASP hired its first 25-piece orchestra and began to pay performance fees to principal singers as the level of professionalism of its cast continued to increase.NYGASP scored a publicity coup on October 28, 1979, when pictures of the cast performing excerpts from "Pinafore" on the Staten Island Ferry were displayed in the "Sunday New York Times" and the "New York Daily News".