Ryley Gillen has been The Ballet Team’s Artistic Director and Chief Conductor since 2016, driving a widespread appreciation of ballet in Regional NSW through creative programming, the sharing of community led stories and increasing the visibility of emerging dancers.
A graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium in 2015, Ryley is an Academic Lecturer in Classical Trumpet at the Australian Institute of Music (AIM) and previously served as AD and Chief Conductor of Sutherland Symphony Orchestra (2020-2025) and Business Manager of the Shoalhaven Youth Orchestra (2019-2024). Ryley’s ballet repertoire includes The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Coppélia, Spartacus and La Strada. Ryley has also conducted orchestral works by prominent composers Bernstein, Copland, Debussy, Prokofiev, Ravel and Stravinsky, whose works feature throughout classical ballet.
In addition, since 2018 Ryley has held the position of principal trumpet with the NSW Department of Justice Corrective Services Band. In 2024 he held the trumpet chair for In The Heights the Musical at the Sydney Opera House, was a featured artist of SOH’s Draw the House program and toured China performing with Broadway performers including Christine Dwyer and Nic Rouleau. For his involvement in the creative arts in NSW 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 and tutor for the NSW Regional Youth Orchestra.
