A passionate communicator with an international career, Daniel brings innovation and meaning to the concert hall, fostering deep connections between audiences and performers. He is concurrently the Principal Youth Conductor and Creative Partner of the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Principal Education Conductor and Community Ambassador of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Artist in Residence and Community Ambassador of Symphony Nova Scotia, Resident Conductor of Engagement and Education of the San Francisco Symphony, and is Chef Principale Invité of Montréal’s ensemble Obiora.

Daniel has guest-conducted the New York Philharmonic, Calgary Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, LA Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Canadian Opera Company, l’Orchestre Symphonique de Laval, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Carnegie Hall Link-Up Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and others. 

In addition to his conducting career, Daniel is the host of the Canadian Broadcasting Company’s “Centrestage”, a nationally broadcast weekly radio show all about chamber and orchestral music.

Bridie Hooper is an award-winning Australian artist and maker who champions circus within multidisciplinary and contemporary performance contexts. 
Her work reveals multi-faceted perspectives on hope, connection, catharsis and mortality, navigating universal themes through deeply personal works that challenge form, context and performer/audience relationship. Intersecting ritual, endurance and the body's potential, her performances affirm and celebrate the intricate human psyche.

Bridie’s practice is centered in circus and physical performance, but places huge value on working collaboratively with multidisciplinary forms including sound art, visual art, theatre, and participatory performance to extend, challenge and reframe her work. These engagements are built on a mutual drive to find new ways to create transformative live art experiences for audiences across theatres, galleries and public space.

Image by Billie Wilson Coffey

Keaton is a multi-disciplinary acrobat and physical theater performer whose work has taken them around the globe. They have performed with acclaimed companies including C!RCA, Broadway’s Water For Elephants, and 7 Fingers. Raised in the circus, Keaton developed an early love for chaos, community, and the creative freedom that thrives in collaborative art-making. When not on stage, Keaton can often be found at the pottery wheel, happily covered in clay, mud seems to be their natural state.Keaton extends deep love and gratitude to their family, Jessica, Mike, Terry, Mary, Eliana, Wyndon, Kellin, Daniel, and Caroline. Without their unwavering support, Keaton jokes they’d still be stuck in the mud... literally.

John de Lancie is an actor, director, producer, writer, educator, sailor, voice artist, and comedian, best known for his iconic portrayal of the omnipotent Q across multiple Star Trek series, including The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Lower Decks, Picard, and Strange New Worlds. He also appeared as Q in Star Trek: The Game Show and Star Trek: Borg, co-wrote the novel I, Q with Peter David, and narrated several Star Trek audiobook adaptations, including Q-in-Law (with Majel Barrett Roddenberry) and Dark Mirror. Outside of Star Trek, de Lancie is widely recognized for voicing Discord, a character inspired by Q, in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (2010–2019).

His television credits include recurring roles as Colonel Frank Simmons in Stargate SG-1 (1997–2007), Donald Margolis in Breaking Bad (2008–2013), and Donald Finley in the revival series episode “The Gun.” In 1996, he co-founded Alien Voices with Leonard Nimoy and Nat Segaloff, producing a series of science fiction audio dramas, including the popular Spock vs. Q recordings, as well as televised specials for the Sci-Fi Channel. He has also appeared in concert settings, co-hosting Star Trek: The Music with Robert Picardo in 2008 and 2010, celebrating music from all eras of the franchise.

Heather Clara Young, CPB, founded Young Associates in 1993 to provide bookkeeping, payroll, training, consulting and outsourced CFO services to not-for-profits and charities, specializing in the arts and culture sector. Heather teaches accounting and financial management in Humber College’s Arts Management program, and has taught for Humber’s Fundraising and Volunteer Management program and University of Toronto’s Arts Management program. Finance for the Arts in Canada (2005, 2024) is a unique self-study guide, reference source and textbook. The book has been praised for its straightforward approach to mastering nonprofit accounting and financial management skills.

Janis Kahentóktha Bomberry is Mohawk Nation, Turtle Clan from Six Nations of the Grand River.  Janis is Executive Director and CEO of the Canadian Museums Association.  Prior to this Janis returned as the Executive Director of Woodland Cultural Centre, one of the largest First Nations- run cultural centres/museums in the country.  Previously, Janis was appointed the Director of Tourism and Cultural Initiatives for the Six Nations of the Grand River Development Corporation. 

Janis attended the University of Western Ontario where she attained a Bachelor of Arts in History and received a Museum Studies diploma from Algonquin College.  Janis continues to volunteer in her community at Six Nations and in Brantford, and is a recipient of the Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers designated by the Governor General of Canada.

Jeanne LeSage's 35 year career has spanned from a decade as a stage manager (including 6 seasons at the Banff Centre),  starting the first HR department at TIFF, international postings at the Kennedy Center (DC), Abu Dhabi Film Festival (UAE), Royal Opera House Muscat (Oman), FilmAid (Haiti); and then forming LeSage Arts Management to support arts organizations in areas such as strategic HR, leadership succession, organizational development, governance, and interim management.  

Jeanne has designed and delivered leadership training across Canada and abroad: Teatro Nacional (Portugal), NEOM Cultural Leadership (Saudi Arabia), Charles University / Prague Sounds (Czechia), DeVos Institute International Arts Management Fellows (DC); at schools such as NTS, Humber, TMU; and multiple sessions with ASO’s and conferences.   

Jeanne is the author of research reports such as: “Who will lead Canada’s Performing Arts Organizations?”,“Reporting and Investigating Mechanisms for Workplace Harassment in the Arts”, and “Future of Arts Work: Board Governance in the Arts”.  

Jeanne is the recipient of Work in Culture’s 2023 Bob Johnston award and a proud co-founder of the national COVID response initiative LEAN (Leadership Emergency Arts Network).

Tanner Reid is a multi-instrumentalist, producer, and audio engineer with a deep love for music. Hailing from Cold Lake, Alberta, he began producing independent hip-hop at 15 years old, developing a hands-on understanding of the creative process. Tanner further refined his skills at MacEwan University in Edmonton, earning a Bachelor’s in Recording and Production. While there, he co-founded and played drums for the pop-punk band Misfortune Tellers, performing in countless successful local shows and two western-Canadian tours. He recorded artists across many genres, including folk, jazz, pop, hip-hop, alt-rock, and punk.

Now pursuing a Master’s in Sound Recording at McGill University in Montreal, Tanner has expanded his expertise through numerous classical and orchestral recordings, while continuing to apply his refined skills to new projects. He remains passionate about both the creative and technical sides of the recording arts, spending the first few months of 2025 producing and recording a folk-jazz album for artist Sophie Lane while creating his own sound design plugin. With a true dedication to capturing the “lightning in a bottle” that occurs in a recording session, Tanner is relentlessly motivated to breathe life into artists’ musical visions.

Originally from Edmonton, Alberta, Simon Williams is an emerging pianist, composer, producer, and audio engineer.  Having graduated from Humber Polytechnic’s Bachelor of Music program (Toronto) in 2025, Simon is an exciting new voice on the Canadian music scene, having already performed and worked across the country.  Simon has performed interprovincially as a pianist, notably at the Winspear Centre, the Aga Khan Museum, Massey Hall, Koerner Hall, the Yardbird Suite, and Hermann’s Jazz club.  After participating in the 2023 Intercultural and Creative Music Fellowship, Simon developed a keen interest and passion for production and recording, beginning by working as an assistant engineer at teh Gordon Wragg Studios in Toronto.  There, he continued developing his skills as a recordist, becoming particularly interested in non-standard stereo recording techniques and applications.  Since then, he has studied audio recording and theory, contemporary production, aesthetics of recorded sound, and immersive audio production.  Simon is excited to continue studying at the Banff Centre and hopes to attain a graduate degree in recording.