Reuben Jelleyman

Reuben Jelleyman (born 1993) is a New Zealand composer.

Biography Jelleyman was born in 1993. He attended Avondale College in Auckland. In 2011 he won the Ken Mitchell Trophy for Best Original Composition at the National Youth Jazz Competition held at the Tauranga Jazz Festival. At Victoria University of Wellington from 2012 and 2016 he studied physics and composition and performance at the New Zealand School of Music.

In 2015 Jelleyman was the youngest finalist in the APRA SOUNZ Contemporary Award (Te Tohu Auaha) with his piece Expanse for mezzo-soprano and chamber ensemble. In 2017 as composer-in-residence with the National Youth Orchestra he wrote Vespro which was premiered by the orchestra. His instrumental piece Designs was premiered by the new music ensemble Stroma in 2018 and recorded by them the following year.

In 2021 he was once again a finalist in the APRA SOUNZ Contemporary Award with the piece Klein Fountain which was written with the Ensemble intercontemporain while he was at the Paris Conservatoire.

In addition to composing Jelleyman was artistic director of Portal Fest, a new contemporary music festival held in Wellington in 2019. He also does audio-visual work. In 2022 he won the SOUNZ Contemporary Award at the APRA awards with Catalogue written for chamber orchestra Multilatérale while he was in Paris.

Selected works

Solar Wind (2014) – for orchestra Expanse (2014) – for mezzo-soprano and chamber ensemble Vespro (2018) – for orchestra Designs (2018) – for ensemble Klein Fountain (2021) – for flute, percussion, cello and piano Catalogue (2022) – for chamber ensemble