A passionate communicator, Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser brings clarity and meaning to the concert hall, fostering deep connections between audiences and performers. He is concurrently the Resident Conductor of Engagement and Education of the San Francisco Symphony, Barrett Principal Education Conductor and Community Ambassador of the Toronto Symphony, Artist in Residence and Community Ambassador of Symphony Nova Scotia, and Principal Youth Conductor and Artistic Partner of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra. He previously served as assistant conductor of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony and associate conductor of the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra. Host of Canadian Broadcasting Company’s (CBC) nationally broadcast weekly radio show Centre Stage, he is also the subject of a multi award-winning CBC documentary Disruptor Conductor, focusing on his efforts to extend the boundaries of the orchestral music world through concerts for neurodiverse, incarcerated, African diaspora, and LGBTQ2S+ populations.

Stephanie Woodford is a pop/soul/R&B musician and singer/songwriter from San Francisco. She is a graduate of both the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Preparatory Division and Saint Ignatius College Preparatory High School. She graduated from City College San Francisco in 2021. While at Saint Ignatius, she participated in the Saint Ignatius Kenya Music Exchange and the Recording Academy’s Grammy Camp. In 2019 and 2020, she performed for the annual UCSF Black Caucus Gala at the Grand Hyatt in San Francisco. She recently provided music for a documentary about the IPO program of the San Francisco Mayor’s Office, which assists formerly incarcerated young people in their reentry to society. Her music is available on all streaming platforms, as well as iTunes, Amazon, and GooglePlay.
 

Since its establishment in 2004, the San Francisco Ballet School Trainee Program boasts a 100% rate of dancers who are engaged by professional ballet companies, including San Francisco Ballet, the Joffrey Ballet, Boston Ballet, Mariinsky Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, English National Ballet, Royal Swedish Ballet, and Royal Danish Ballet. Designed to ease dancers’ transition from the studio classroom to the professional stage, the one- to two-year pre-professional program offers free tuition and housing to trainees, who are chosen each year from the SF Ballet School’s advanced students. In addition to their own rigorous training schedule, trainees also participate in rehearsals with the main company and are invited to perform in corps de ballet roles in full-length SF Ballet productions such as Giselle and The Sleeping Beauty. Trainees maintain a robust performance schedule elsewhere throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and on tour worldwide.
 

The San Francisco Boys Chorus (SFBC) is an internationally acclaimed Grammy-award winning nonprofit music education and performing arts organization at the heart of San Francisco's cultural center. Founded in 1948, SFBC is one of the oldest nonprofit choral arts organizations in the country and the largest chorus for boys in the western United States. SFBC’s mission is to provide music education, vocal training, and performance experiences at the highest artistic level to Bay Area boys from all cultural, ethnic, and economic backgrounds. The chorus serves more than 150 singers from 50 Bay Area cities and more than 100 schools at four Bay Area campuses. The Concert Chorus tours both nationally and internationally and has performed for US presidents and foreign dignitaries.

Celebrating their 22^nd year, Kugelplex aims to sustain and evolve the ecstatic musical traditions of the old-world klezmers through performing music that dismantles cultural boundaries spanning Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. Kugelplex has performed with Joan Baez, Kitka, and the Oakland and San Francisco symphonies, among others. Their new album Cast Away Our Sorrows is available at Kugelplex.com Kugelplex’s performance is supported by the California Arts Council.

Kugelplex:
Dan Cantrell, accordion
Lila Sklar, violin/vocals
Jason Ditzian, clarinet
Max Baloian, guitars
Eric Perney, bass
Michael Pinkham, percussion

Based in the San Francisco Bay Area and celebrating 20 years in 2023, Dholrhythms Dance Company is an organization dedicated to promoting the artistic and cultural heritage of India by sharing rhythms of Punjab through classes, workshops, performances, and events. Diverse in age and ethnicity, Dholrhythms is an all-women company dancing together to share their love for music, community, and culture while empowering and celebrating women. Led by cofounder Vicki Virk, Dholrhythms highlights the ancestral and ethnic roots of Punjabi folk dances while pushing boundaries with contemporary influences. In addition to curating their own productions, the group passionately dedicates itself to collaborations to raise awareness to embrace a more global conscious unity through music and dance.

Dancers: Vicki Virk, Suman Raj, Binu Kumar, Rajni Rao, Nina Zumel, Mila Raj, Lisa Hepps, Michelle Baird, Emily Devenny, Andrea Hirsig, Nina Mohan, Surina Grewal
 
Live Dhol Drum: Rav-E Sandhu
 

The mission of the Presidio Theatre is to ensure that the magic of live performance is accessible to the entire community. By reawakening an architectural jewel in the Presidio and creating a professionally run venue that reflects the rich diversity of the Bay Area, the Presidio Theatre encourages artists to grow and flourish. Today, the historic theater is a home for beloved San Francisco Bay Area artists and events including the Children’s Theatre Association of San Francisco, Robert Moses’ KIN, SFArtsEd, the Queer Women of Color Film Festival, and a uniquely San Franciscan twist on classic British holiday pantomimes, Panto in the Presidio. Panto combines slapstick humor, one-line zingers, outrageous characters, and send-ups of current events. Now in its third year, Panto in the Presidio has delighted more than 15,000 audience members young and old. A wildly funny musical mashup of true love, talking dogs, singing chickens, and dancing ghosts, with enough fairy magic for the entire family, Panto in the Presidio’s presentation of Sleeping Beauty returns by popular demand from November 25–December 30.
 
Sleeping Beauty Performers: Ruby Day, Curt Branom, Renée Lubin, Sharon Shao, Gary Stanford Jr.