Northey also appears regularly as a guest
conductor with all major Australian symphony orchestras, Opera Australia (Turandot,
L’elisir d’amore, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte, Carmen), New Zealand Opera (Sweeney
Todd) and State Opera of South Australia (La sonnambula, L’elisir d’amore, Les contes
d’Hoffmann). His international
appearances include concerts with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tokyo
Philharmonic Orchestra, the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, the Hong Kong
Philharmonic, the National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia, the Malaysian
Philharmonic and the New Zealand, Auckland and Christchurch Symphony Orchestras.
Northey studied conducting with John
Hopkins at the University of Melbourne Conservatorium of Music from
2000-2002. In 2001, he was awarded
first prize in the Symphony Australia Young Conductor of the Year Competition
under the direction of Jorma Panula. In 2002, he was he was accepted as the
highest placed applicant to Finland’s prestigious Sibelius Academy where he
studied with Leif Segerstam and Atso Almila until 2005. He completed his studies at the Stockholm
Royal College of Music with Jorma Panula in 2006. In 2009/10, he was chosen as one of three
conductors worldwide to participate in the Allianz International Conductor’s
Academy with the LPO and the Philharmonia Orchestra.
With a progressive and diverse approach to
repertoire, he has collaborated with a broad range of artists including Maxim
Vengerov, Julian Rachlin, Karen Gomyo, Piers Lane, Alban Gerhardt, Johannes
Moser, Piers Lane, Amy Dickson, Slava Grigoryan & Marc-André Hamelin as
well as popular artists Tim Minchin, KD Lang, Kate Miller-Heidke, Barry
Humphries, Kurt Elling, James Morrison and Tori Amos.
Northey is highly active in the performance
of Australian orchestral music having premiered numerous major new works by
Brett Dean, Peter Sculthorpe, Elena Kats-Chernin, Matthew Hindson and many
others. An Honorary Fellow at the
University of Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, his awards include the
prestigious 2010 Melbourne Prize Outstanding Musician’s Award and the 2002
Brian Stacey Memorial Scholarship as well as multiple awards and nominations
for his numerous recordings with ABC Classics. 2019 highlights include La bohème for Opera Australia and returns to Hong Kong Philharmonic, New Zealand Symphony, Christchurch Symphony and all six state symphony orchestras.
Ben's Personal Website