Board of Directors
The BAPA Board accepts applications in spring of each year. If you are interested, please email recruitment@bapany.org.
Officers
Troy Blackwell (he/him), Chair
Ex-officio member of all committees
Founder, Ready for Change
Twitter: @troyblackwelljr
Domingo Diaz, Jr. (he/him), Vice Chair
Lead: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Committee
McKenzie (a.k.a “Mother McKenzie”) Keating (we/she), Treasurer
Lead: Finance Committee
Artist, activist, and nonprofit professional (Co-Director, GayRidge)
Michael R. Dekker, Secretary
Lead: Governance Committee
Photographer
Kyle Medeiros (he/him), Membership and Social Team (MaST) Chair
Deputy Executive Director of the American Camp Association, New York and New Jersey
Directors
Daniel Baillie (he/him)
Member: Development Committee
Vice President, Global Ground Transportation Manager, Citibank
Emily Baum (she/her)
Member: Governance Committee
Venture Investor, NYU Innovation Venture Fund
Tym Byers (he/him)
Member: Development Committee
Rob Byrnes (he/him)
Member: Development Committee
President, East Midtown Partnership
Rob Cordell (he/him)
Member: Governance Committee
Executive Director and Counsel, Mizuho Americas
Bradley Hess (he/him)
Member: Finance Committee
Software Engineer, Citadel
Joshua O'Sullivan (he/him)
Member: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Committee
Consultant/Capacity Building Trainer
Dipal Shah (he/him)
Member: Governance Committee
Executive Director, Planned Parenthood Greater New York Action Fund
Christina Simon (she/her)
Member: Public Relations
Advance Coordinator, United States Department of Housing and Urban Development
Executive Director
January 2025 - Position is currently vacant, please see job posting at this link here.
Artistic Director
John J. Atorino | He/Him
John Atorino is a professional music conductor and arranger from New Jersey. He studied Choral Music Education and Conducting at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor under the mentorship of Jerry Blackstone and Eugene Rogers. After college, he went on to conduct with the Chicago Children’s Choir and teach music at Social Justice High School in Chicago. John moved back to the east coast in 2010 where he got his Master’s in Music Education at New York University while conducting the Men’s Glee Club and Mixed A Cappella Choir and teaching middle and high school choir during the day. In 2013, John was hired as Assistant Conductor for the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus where he conducted the chorus on numerous outreach gigs and main stage concerts. While continuing to conduct with NYCGMC and NYU at night, John eventually left the classroom during the day and began editing and typesetting music materials for Samuel French/Concord Music. In 2016, John started a weekly queer-themed podcast which has been featured in “Best of” lists for Cosmopolitan, LogoTV, Out.com, Metrosource, and Screenrant among others. In 2020, Atorino left NYC and moved to Oregon where he served as the Artistic Director for the Portland Gay Men’s Chorus bringing them through the lockdown and back to the live stage. While serving PGMC, he produced and edited digital performances, arranged and orchestrated songs, commissioned a new piece by Aaron Dai, and led the organization to receive the Governor’s Arts Award in the summer of 2020 for their first ever digital performance (“Under Pressure”) and their continued 40 year tradition of choral excellence. John has been commissioned to arrange or orchestrate over 30 songs for NYCGMC plus many more for various ensembles over the years. He believes community singing is a radical act of humanity.
Lester Vrtiak | He/Him
Operations Manager
Lester joins Big Apple Performing Arts and the New York City Gay Men's Chorus with over ten years of experience as an arts administrator. Previously, Lester managed outreach programs with the Thurnauer School of Music at the JCC on the Palisades, and educational and community engagement programs with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. Most recently, Lester served as the Director of the Sing for Hope Pianos, public pianos placed throughout NYC for anyone to play and enjoy.
Today, Lester is in charge of operations and makes sure that everything is running smoothly with BAPA and NYCGMC, as well as working closely with the Youth Pride Chorus and Tonewall.
Lester is an active member with Barkada NYC, a community for Queer and Trans Filipinx folks, and has been a volunteer mentor with Big Brothers Big Sisters NYC for the last three years. Lester is obsessed with hotpot, outdoor adventures with his dog Lucas, and collecting the first 151 Pokemon.
Photo credit: Michael Dekker
Aaron Dai | He/Him
Accompanist
A graduate of Columbia University and the Mannes College of Music, Aaron began studying piano at the age of five and went on to win the UNICEF Youth Concerts Competition three times by the age of fifteen. As a soloist and collaborative pianist, he has performed around the country and abroad, in New York venues such as Carnegie Hall, Steinway Hall, Symphony Space, and The Town Hall, and cities including Dublin, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, and San Francisco.
Aaron's venture into serious composition began at the University of Pennsylvania under the auspices of George Crumb. His The Night Before Christmas for Narrator and Orchestra has been performed internationally and by actors such as Ana Gasteyer, David Hyde Pierce, Charles Busch, Andrea Martin, BD Wong, and John Lithgow. He has a history of fruitful collaboration with artists in other fields, including the late abstract painter Louise Fishman, poet Eileen Myles, and choreographer Kevin Hill. For his fifteen-minute miniature opera Hamlet, he collaborated with Pulitzer-nominated playwright Jon Marans, and the opera premiered in New York City with actor Darius de Haas in the title role. You Yourself Must Change It (text by poet Adrienne Rich), a work commissioned by the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus, received its premiere at The Town Hall and aired nationally on Sirius XM Satellite Radio for two months. Aaron is a founding member of and the resident composer for The Chelsea Symphony, and he is a four-time recipient of the ASCAP Plus Award, Concert Music Division.
A former clarinetist, oboist, and bassoonist, Aaron is now a staff pianist at the Mannes School of Music. He lives with his husband Tom and teaches in New York City.
Nicholas Sienkiewicz | He/Him
Director, Youth Pride Chorus
Nick is a conductor, music director, and researcher from Romeo, MI. Nick studied conducting under Chris Albanese Betsy Burleigh, Dominick DiOrio, and Walter Huff at Indiana University. Prior to this, Nick studied with Professor Austin McWilliams, and sang under the tutelage of Dr. Kimberly Dunn Adams at Western Michigan University. Nick recently participated in NYU’s Musical Theatre Conducting Intensive, under the mentorship of Ted Sperling. Some of his previous work with youth includes positions as Chorus Director with the Kalamazoo Children’s Chorus’ Coro De Niños and Head of the Voice Department at French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts.
As a conductor, Nick has worked with the Bloomington Chamber Singers, and previously led and organized the inaugural Kalamazoo Community Grand Chorus. While at Indiana University, Nick had the privilege of working as the Assistant Conductor with the Indiana University Vocal Chamber Ensembles, the Grammy-Nominated Singing Hoosiers, Opera Chorus for HMS Pinafore, and the Assistant Director for All Campus Chorus.
Nick’s work and research as a scholar is focused in the psychological and brain sciences and specializes in developing trauma-informed environments that result in safe, challenging, and engaging choral spaces. Nick has been presented at multiple international and national conferences including the European Association for Music in Schools, the College Music Society, and the American Choral Director’s Association. An active author, Nick has two articles published in the Choral Journal. In the public sphere, Nick has been featured on local and national radio networks, along with the Choralosophy podcast. He has a particular interest in psycho- and queer musicology, with a current focus on the music of John Corigliano, and Craig Hella Johnson’s Considering Matthew Shepard.
Nick holds a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and a Bachelor of Musical Arts from Western Michigan University. Nick completed his Master of Music in Choral Conducting at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Along with his appointment with YPC, Nick is the Artistic Director of the Lehigh Valley Chorale, and serves as an Instructor in the Professional Conservatory of Musical Theatre at the New York Film Academy.
Stephen Kurowski | He/Him
Production Manager
IN MEMORIAM: 1963 - 2023
Stephen Kurowski has worked in theater for more than 28 years both as a Stage Manager and Production Manager. He joined the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus in 2002 as a singing member and became Production Manager in 2008. He has helped produce over 36 shows and special events for the chorus, including Big Gay Sing for Gala 2012 in Denver and Big Gay Sing for Marriage Equality in Dublin in 2014.