Lyell Cresswell (born 1944, Wellington, New Zealand) is a composer of contemporary classical music. He is the younger brother of Max Cresswell. He studied in Wellington, Toronto, Aberdeen and Utrecht. He moved to Scotland in the 1970s and has lived and worked in Edinburgh since 1985. He received the APRA Silver Scroll for his contribution to New Zealand music in 1979 and he won the Ian Whyte Award for the orchestral work Salm in 1978. In 1979, 1981 and 1988 he received a recommendation by the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers. In 2002, Victoria University of Wellington awarded him an honorary D. Mus degree and the inaugural Elgar Bursary.