Benjamin Northey

Benjamin Northey (born 1970) is an Australian conductor, musician and arranger. He has been Chief Conductor of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra in New Zealand, since 2015. He is also the Associate Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra since 2011.

Northey was born and raised in Ballarat, Victoria. His father Robert (Bob) Northey is a retired university administrator and former president of the Ballarat Symphony Orchestra and his mother Wendy is a forensic psychologist and pianist. His uncle is the retired AFL football player and coach John Northey.

He attended Ballarat Clarendon College where he studied flute, clarinet and saxophone with Barry Currie and arranging with Graeme Vendy, and where his skills as a saxophonist, clarinettist and flautist were first developed; in his early years he also played piano, trumpet and violin. At 12, he won prizes in Ballarat's Royal South Street Eisteddfod for performances on flute and saxophone. During his teenage years he began working professionally in local pit orchestras in Ballarat for musical theatre and operetta productions. After school he moved to Melbourne, where he worked as a freelance musician, composer and arranger for close to ten years. During this time he was an active recording session musician and also performed with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Australian Pops Orchestra and the Australian Showband. He appeared as a soloist with the Australian Wind Orchestra on their tour of Japan and Hong Kong in 1990. In 1998 he toured Australia and the United States with guitarist Tommy Emmanuel.

He is currently based in Melbourne with his wife (the horn player Joanne Montesano), and two children.

In 1996 Northey commenced performance studies in classical saxophone at the University of Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, graduating in 1999 with First Class Honours. It was only in the final year of his degree, at age 29, that he turned to conducting. This occurred under the mentorship of John Hopkins, who encouraged him to be the first candidate for his new Master of Music in Conducting degree at the Victorian College of the Arts and Music. He graduated in 2002.

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