Active in both classical and jazz genres, Jaelem Bhate is a conductor, composer and proponent of reinvention and accessibility and works to reimagine the role of instrumental music in the 21st century. He was named to CBC’s hot 30 under 30 classical musicians in 2019 and is a board member of Orchestras Canada; the association representing Canadian orchestras.

As a conductor, Jaelem founded Symphony 21; an ensemble and registered charity focused on producing concerts in non-traditional spaces for non-traditional audiences while simultaneously breaking down barriers racial, gender, and socio-economic. Jaelem was also named music director of the Vancouver Brass Collective in 2019.

Guest engagements include the Vancouver and Winnipeg Symphony Orchestras, along with invitations to Italy, Romania, Portugal and Bulgaria. In 2022, he’ll lead the Guelph Symphony as a candidate for their new Artistic Director. An advocate for new music, he has conducted over 20 world premieres, the majority of them by diverse, Canadian composers. In the 2022/23 season as a conductor, he will record a new operetta by Canadian composer Katerina Gimon with Re:Naissance Opera, and a studio album with the Vancouver Brass Collective.

As a composer, his works have been performed by the Vancouver and Victoria Symphonies, as well as many chamber ensembles and soloists. In the jazz world, he has released two albums with the Jaelem Bhate Jazz Orchestra; on the edge, and Carmen, a reimagining of Bizet’s opera for jazz ensemble. on the edge won the 2020 Julian Award for emerging Canadian jazz excellence and spent two weeks at the top of the EarShot national jazz charts. Recent commissions include the Canadian National Jazz Orchestra, Redshift Music, and the New Brunswick Youth Symphony. Jaelem has received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and FACTOR Canada for his composition work, and he will premiere his new orchestral work paired with original cinematic video A City Soundscape in Fall 2022, funded by the Canada Council. Jaelem holds a MMus in orchestral conducting and BMus in percussion performance from UBC where he studied with Dr. Jonathan Girard and Vern Griffiths respectively. He has furthered his conducting studies with Alexander Shelley, Bramwell Tovey, Boris Brott, Gerard Schwarz, Neil Varon, Paul Nadler, and Christian Macelaru, and counts Dr. Robert Taylor as an early conducting mentor. Jaelem studied composition with Fred Stride, and has furthered his education with Jocelyn Morlock, Edward Top, Rufus Reid, John Clayton, and the late Ron Miles.