Press Room

A passionate communicator, Canadian conductor Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser brings clarity and meaning to the concert hall, fostering deep connections between audiences and performers. He is an innovative creative visionary, who believes that the beauty of music can heal and unite all of us beyond differences.

Bartholomew-Poyser holds the positions of Resident Conductor of Engagement and Education of the San Francisco Symphony, Barrett Principal Education Conductor and Community Ambassador of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and Principal Youth Conductor and Creative Partner with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa. He is also Artist in Residence and Community Ambassador of Symphony Nova Scotia, conducting ballet and pops programs with national and international artists and designing diverse and relevant family and outreach shows for the Halifax community. He is the host of the weekly, national Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio show Centre Stage.

Bartholomew-Poyser has conducted with the Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, Houston Symphony, National Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Charlotte Symphony, Wichita Symphony, and the Sacramento Philharmonic in the United States; and the Canadian Opera Company, Vancouver Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Hamilton Philharmonic, Edmonton Symphony, Winnipeg Symphony, Windsor Symphony, Thunder Bay Symphony, Regina Symphony, London Symphonia, and Ensemble Obiora in Canada. He was a guest conductor with the Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center in 2020. In April 2022, he made his debut with Carnegie Hall’s Link Up Orchestra, conducting the world premiere of Ram Tori Maya by Indian American composer Reena Esmail and We Shall Not Be Moved arranged by American vocalist and composer, Nathalie Joachim.

 Bartholomew-Poyser was featured in the 2019 CBC documentary Disruptor Conductor directed by Sharon Lewis. Along with RuPaul’s Drag Race star Thorgy Thor, the documentary follows Bartholomew-Poyser as he collaboratively creates the first orchestral drag queen show in Canada, titled Thorgy and the Thorchestra. The award-winning documentary focuses on Bartholomew-Poyser’s concerts for neurodiverse, incarcerated, African diaspora and LGBTQ2S+ populations.

Bartholomew-Poyser earned a Bachelor of Music Performance and Education from the University of Calgary and a Master of Philosophy in Performance from the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England. He is a recipient of the Canada Council for the Arts Jean-Marie Beaudet Prize for Orchestral Conducting, as well as the RBC Royal Bank Emerging Artist Grant and the Canada Council for the Arts Jean Baudet Prize for Orchestral Conducting. He is a member of the Ontario College of Teachers.