Australian conductor Christopher Dragon is the newly appointed Music Director of the Philly Pops orchestra, beginning this post on July 1, 2025. He is the Music Director of the Wyoming Symphony and the Greensboro Symphony, and is the Resident Conductor of the Colorado Symphony. He joined the Colorado Symphony in the 2015/2016 Season as Associate Conductor – a position he held for four years. For three years prior, Dragon held the inaugural position of Assistant Conductor with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, which gave him the opportunity to work closely with Principal Conductor Asher Fisch.

Dragon has a versatile portfolio ranging from live-to-picture performances including Nightmare Before Christmas, Toy Story and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, a wide variety of collaborations with artists such as the Wu-Tang Clan, Cynthia Erivo and Joshua Bell, to standard and contemporary orchestral repertoire such as Danny Elfman’s Percussion Concerto; all areas of which he has become highly sought after. Christopher has become known for his charisma, high energy, and affinity for a good costume, consistently delivering unforgettable performances that has made him an audience favourite.

Recent highlights include his debut with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, his German debut with the WDR Funkhausorchester, performances of Danny Elfman’s Music from the Films of Tim Burton with Danny Elfman reprising the role of Jack Skellington and historic performances with Nathaniel Rateliff at Walt Disney Concert Hall and David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center. 

Christopher is highly sought after as a guest conductor and has worked with the San Francisco Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, Utah Symphony, Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Omaha Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Chicago Philharmonic, Modesto Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, WDR Funkhausorchester, Orquestra Sinfônica de Porto Alegre and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. In Australia, he has guest conducted the Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and West Australian Symphony Orchestras. His 2015 debut performance at the Sydney Opera House with John Pyke and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra was released on an album by ABC Music and won an ARIA the following year

He has also conducted at numerous festivals including the Breckenridge and Bangalow Music Festivals, with both resulting in immediate re-invitations. At the beginning of 2016 Dragon conducted Wynton Marsalis’ Swing Symphony as part of the Perth International Art Festival alongside Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

Christopher began his conducting studies in 2011 and was a member of the prestigious Symphony Services International Conductor Development Program in Australia under the guidance of course director Christopher Seaman. He has also studied with numerous distinguished conductors, including Leonid Grin, Paavo and Neeme Jarvi at the Jarvi Summer Festival, Fabio Luisi at the Pacific Music Festival, and conducting pedagogue Jorma Panula.

Nikki Renée Daniels recently starred on Broadway as Lady Larken in Once Upon a Mattress, reprising her role from the City Center Encores! presentation. Other recent credits include the Tony Award-winning Broadway revival of Company, Hamilton (Angelica Schuyler) at the CIBC Center in Chicago, and The Book of Mormon (Nabulungi) on Broadway. Nikki has also been seen on Broadway as Clara in the Tony Award-winning revival of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, Fantine in Les Miserablés, and in Nine, Aida, Little Shop of Horrors, The Look of Love, Promises, Promises, Anything Goes, and Lestat. She made her New York City Opera debut
as Clara in Porgy and Bess.

Other New York credits include playing Martha Jefferson in 1776 at City Center Encores! and Rose Lennox in The Secret Garden at David Geffen Hall. 

Regionally, Nikki has been seen in The Music Man (Marian) at PCLO; Caroline, or Change (Emmie) at the Guthrie Theatre; Ray Charles Live! (Della B.) at Pasadena Playhouse; Anything Goes (Hope) at Williamstown Theatre Festival; Beauty and the Beast (Belle) at Sacramento Music Circus, and North Shore Music Theater; Ragtime (Sarah) at North Shore Music Theatre; Aida (Aida) and Joseph and the Amazing
Technicolor Dreamcoat (Narrator) at ArtPark. 

Her film and television credits include The Other Woman, “Billions,” “The Equalizer,” “Chappelle’s Show,” “Madam Secretary” and “The Sound of Music: Live.”

Nikki has performed as a soloist with many symphony orchestras across the country and Canada, including the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops, the Philly POPS, the New York Pops, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra.  She has also performed as a soloist at Carnegie Hall and holds a BFA from the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music. Her debut CD, Home, is available on iTunes. For more information, please visit nikkireneedaniels.com and follow her on social media at @nikkireneesings.

Jeff Kready was most recently seen on Broadway in The Great Gatsby, where he understudied and performed the role of Jay Gatsby.  Jeff’s other Broadway credits include David in the 2022 Tony Award winning revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Company,
stand-by for the “title” role of Michael Dorsey/Dorothy Michaels in Tootsie, Monty Navarro in A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Tony Elliot in Billy Elliot, Sunday in the Park with George, and Les Miserables, where he was the youngest person, at age 24, to ever perform the role of Jean Valjean on Broadway.  His regional credits include Ragtime (New York City Center Encores), Sky Masterson in Guys & Dolls (Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera), Ted Hanover in Holiday Inn (Paper Mill Playhouse), Mr. Snow in Carousel (Connecticut Critics Circle Award nomination, Goodspeed Opera House), Tommy in Brigadoon (Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera), Jimmy Smith in Thoroughly Modern Millie (Paper Mill), Crumpet the elf in David Sedaris’s one-man-show Santaland Diaries (Hartford TheaterWorks), In This House (world premiere, Two River
Theater), Attack of the Elvis Impersonators (Theater Row), and Tokio Confidential (Atlantic Theater Company).  

On television, Mr. Kready was featured as Bert Healy the radio announcer in “Annie Live!” on NBC, starring Harry Connick Jr.  He has also been seen on “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (Amazon), “The Code” (CBS), “The Good Fight” (CBS), “Elementary” (recurring, CBS), and “Boardwalk Empire” (HBO).  He has performed as ga uest soloist with the Allentown Symphony, the Český Krumlov Music Festival (Czech Republic), the
Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, the Colorado Symphony, the Grand Teton Music Festival, the Long Bay Symphony, the Maui Pops Orchestra, the Omaha Symphony, the Seattle Chamber Music Society, the St. Louis Symphony, the Topeka Symphony, and can be heard on the album “The Broadway Tenors” with the UK’s National Symphony Orchestra (Jay Records). He was formerly an elementary school music teacher and is a graduate of Washburn University in his hometown, Topeka, KS. Jeff’s favorite roles are husband to Nikki and dad to Lena and Louise. For more information, please visit jeffkready.com and follow him on Instagram at @jk_ready.