Eyes on the prize: Reuben Brown, NZ’s assistant conductor-in-residence 2025. Photo / Supplied
Eyes on the prize: Reuben Brown, NZ’s assistant conductor-in-residence 2025. Photo / Supplied
As birthdays go, Reuben Brown’s 25th was pretty good. It was the day he was named New Zealand assistant conductor-in-residence 2025, which means he’s working with Auckland Philharmonia, Christchurch Symphony and Dunedin Symphony Orchestras, and shadowing Auckland Phil’s music director, Giordano Bellincampi.
“It was like a Hollywood movie,” Brown recalls.“The orchestra played Happy Birthday to me, then [Auckland Philharmonia’s] Gale Mahood came out to say I got the job.”
Mahood is just the latest industry VIP to have clocked Brown’s talent. A gifted euphonium player, he became associate music director of Wellington Brass while in his teens. Brown was also an NZSO conducting fellow from 2022-24, and has been selected to participate in the forthcoming Whakatipu Music Festival (April 18-21).
The festival has an excellent young artist programme, so even the accomplished Brown had to provide referees. He got recommendations from a few pals at the NZSO: music director emeritus James Judd, principal conductor-in-residence Hamish McKeich and artistic adviser and principal conductor Gemma New. Quite the flex.
“I’ve got a good support network,” Brown admits.
Among the works he’ll conduct at the festival is a Mozart aria. It’s the sort of repertoire he’s keen to refine before tackling the larger, lusher Romantic-era pieces. “It takes a lot to transport people in a Mozart symphony, because it’s so lean,” he says. “I want to develop a good idea of how I want that repertoire to move and sound and come alive.”
Once his national residency finishes at the end of this year, he’ll have achieved pretty much everything someone of his age and stage can. Overseas study beckons. Brown likes the idea of the Netherlands, where he’s observed the path of promising Australian conductor Sam Weller. Brown says such examples are important.
“We’re at the edge of the world for Western classical music, so to see success in people from the same environment is huge. That’s why working with Gemma New was fantastic.”
Asked if he has a sense of where he wants his career to go after his study is complete, Brown produces a guttural laugh, the sort you might call forth if you were plotting to take over the world, which he kind of is.
“I’ve only got a five-year plan,” he says, meaning it. “There are a couple of things I want to do. One is opera, because I haven’t had much experience with that and I’m curious. And in five years, I’d like to be working with ensembles between New Zealand, Australia and Europe.”
And, eventually Brown hopes, an orchestra to call his own.
“I like the idea of having a home base where I work with an orchestra. Then on my nights off I can take my euphonium along to band practice and just play Colonel Bogey.”
Whakatipu Music Festival, Queenstown, April 18-21.
