Bhangra & Beyond
Apr 14, 2024
Marketing Blurb
Music moves us in many ways, emotionally and especially physically. Across the globe, there are musical traditions that fuse music and movement in distinct ways. Many people from the Indian sub-continent have made their home in the GTA. Bhangra & Beyond is a concert that celebrates all the unique ways those cultures have fused music and dance together. Join us as we see how composers, influenced by the music of Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent, create new sounds and exciting pieces. In half of the music pieces, dancers from Maritime Bhangra and Sanskriti Arts will be dancing on stage while the orchestra plays, and by the end of the show, you'll be dancing in your seats!
Join us for a fun-filled afternoon with your Toronto Symphony Orchestra and special guests Maritime Bhangra and Sanskriti Arts as we embrace the power of music, rhythm, and dance. Create core memories as you introduce your children to a love of music and live performance. This concert is particularly great for ages 8–12.
Artist Bios and Image Assets
Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser, conductor
A passionate communicator, Daniel brings clarity and meaning to the concert hall, fostering deep connections between audiences and performers. Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser concurrently holds two conducting posts: the Principal Education Conductor and Community Ambassador of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and Artist in Residence and Community Ambassador of Symphony Nova Scotia.
He served as Associate Conductor of the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra. Daniel has performed with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic, Chicago Philharmonic, has been re-invited to the San Francisco Symphony for six consecutive years and was Cover Conductor with the Washington National Opera in 2020.
He also is the host of CBC’s nationally broadcast weekly radio show “Centrestage”. He sits on the Boards of both Orchestras Canada and The Conductor’s Retreat at Medomak, headquartered in Michigan. Daniel was the subject of a multi-award winning Canadian Broadcasting Company documentary focussing on his efforts to extend the boundaries of the orchestral music world through concerts for Neurodiverse, Prison, African Diaspora and LGBTQ2S+ populations.
Daniel earned his Bachelor in Music Performance and Education from the University of Calgary, and his Master of Philosophy in Performance from the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England.
.jpg "Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser")
-052.jpg "Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser conducting the TSO (Photo by Allan Cabral/Toronto Symphony Orchestra)")
Maritime Bhangra, dancers
Maritime Bhangra Group is a Halifax, Nova Scotia-based dance group which came into existence back in June 2016. Initially as “…an attempt to have fun and perhaps bridge gaps between us – between people who may look different on the outside but are the same on the inside. We were all students, we all missed our families, and we all wanted to find support in our community. Just after our first video went viral, our viewers made us rethink everything. We had no words to explain the love they had shown us. On that day, we promised ourselves to do our part for this community by raising awareness and money for anything needed in our new home. Over the past four years, our audience has made us into people others want to include in their selfies. Even when we made many mistakes, they still loved us, gave us many opportunities to try again. Important people wanted to see us – a group of International students who, before all this, were only known for being a good cashier, a great pizza delivery driver or nice tech support assistant.”
Since its inception, the group has produced more than 50 videos to raise money for different causes like ALS, Autism, Blood Cancer, Multiple Sclerosis, Feed Nova Scotia, and many more using JOYFUL ACTIVISM. The group was honoured to represent Atlantic Canada on Parliament Hill for Canada 150 celebrations.
Learn more about the group on the official site of their documentary “Behind the Bhangra Boys”, streaming now on gem.cbc.ca
.jpg "Maritime Bhangra (photo courtesy of Maritime Bhangra)")
Sanskriti Arts, dancers
The Sanskriti Arts Ensemble exists to raise awareness of the various forms of South Asian dance, spread Indian culture and ethnicity through traditional and contemporary dance and music performances. The Sanskriti Arts Ensemble team of diverse professional dancers have been entertainment specialists for many corporations. They have performed at International platforms and Local Festivals, Charitable Events, Concerts, Tours, Music Videos, Hosted Bollywood Celebrities, Community Events, Multicultural Projects and Conventions. The team comprises of expert mature dancers with formal education and experience in their dance discipline. Whether it is a fund-raiser speech or a toastmaster’s spiel, pack it at the beginning, end or somewhere in between a Sanskriti performance and your job is done! Shaped by the artistic vision of Puja, our founder and artistic director, each show has an inspired theme.
TSO Video Assets
TSO B-Roll
Bhangra & Beyond Video
TSO Editorial Content
