Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser

Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser is a Canadian orchestral conductor. He is best known for creating and conducting shows designed to introduce orchestral music to groups outside of its traditional audiences, such as by blending classical with contemporary genres and centring on themes targeted to groups who do not typically attend the symphony.

A native of Montreal, Quebec but growing up in Calgary, Alberta, he attended William Aberhart High School, and studied music at the University of Calgary and the Royal Northern College of Music. He taught music at Calgary's Glenmore Christian Academy for several years before returning to conducting and coming out as gay. Admitting he had never conducted with a fireworks display, he promised just to keep going when the fireworks started, and he did, to great applause and approval.

His shows have included The Long River, a 2018 performance with Symphony Nova Scotia and folk musician J.P. Cormier dedicated to the music of Gordon Lightfoot, and Soul Legends: From Isaac Hayes to Marvin Gaye, a program of soul and rhythm and blues music which he performed with the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra in 2019.

Disruptor Conductor, a 2019 television documentary film by Sharon Lewis, profiled Bartholomew-Poyser's work on four shows in 2018: a string quartet performance for prisoners at the Grand Valley Institution for Women; a show with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra designed to accommodate the special needs of children with autism; a show with the San Francisco Symphony which connected classical performance with African music by incorporating African drumming performed by Magatte Sow; and "Thorgy and the Thorchestra", a show centred around LGBTQ and drag culture starring drag performer and classical violinist Thorgy Thor.

He has also been acting as current conductor for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra doing many concerts for school concerts and the TSO's relaxed concerts for children and those with Autism.

It is noted that Bartholomew-Poyser will become the music director of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada and Chef principal inveté at L'ensemble obiora à Montréal.