Ryley Gillen

Ryley Gillen is a performer, music educator and arts leader. Having graduated from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in 2015 in trumpet and conducting, Ryley founded Wollongong based ballet company The Ballet Team (BT). Ryley is also currently Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Sutherland Shire Symphony Orchestra and academic lecturer in classical trumpet at the Australian Institute Of Music (AIM).

 

As a composer Ryley has written the ballet "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" , musical "Rabbits on a Red Planet", orchestral works for the Wollongong Conservatorium Orchestra, Shoalhaven Youth Orchestra and Sutherland Shire Symphony.  His CD of 11 original works for youth orchestra, "South Coast Sketches", was commissioned jointly by the Shoalhaven Youth Orchestra, Shoalhaven City Council and Create NSW in 2022. In 2023 Ryley's commissioned work "A Slice of Pav" and "Opening Fanfare" was premiered at the gala opening of the Sutherland Pavilion. 

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Ryley is a regular creative collaborator with visual artist Todd Fuller. Their work "Bugle Boy and the Electric Boogaloo", premiered at the Bundaberg Regional Gallery in 2022 as well as Fuller's animation "Twilight Bark" with score by Gillen being a finalist in the M16 Drawing Prize 2023 and picking up the People's Choice Award.

 

Since 2018 Ryley has held the position of principal trumpet with NSW Department of Justice Band, and has previously been principal trumpet with the Sydney Contemporary Orchestra and St George Chamber Orchestra.

 

For his involvement in the creative arts in regional areas, Ryley was recognised as a finalist in the 2018 NSW Creative Achievement Awards: Young Creative. In 2019 Ryley was appointed to the Classical Music Advisory Board for Create NSW and in 2022 the Service Needs Strategic Fund Panel. Ryley has previously worked as an educator and conductor at the Wollongong Conservatorium and Hume Conservatorium and assistant musical conductor for the Sydney Conservatorium.

 

As musical director, Ryley has conducted “Chicago (Centre Stage Theatrics, 2022), “Mamma Mia" (CST, 2022), “Addams Family" (AMTC, 2019, nominated for best Musical Direction CAT Awards), "Mary Poppins" (AMTC, 2018), "Witches of Eastwick" (Roo Theatre, 2018). "South Pacific: In Concert" (IOP, 2017). "Next To Normal" (Arcadians Theatre, 2014). Ryley has also conducted BT's ballets, including "The Nutcracker"  (2016) , "Peter Pan"  (2018), and "Swan Lake... but with Cows" (2023).

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