Andrew Mark Nethsingha,

FRCO The Royal College of Organists (RCO) is a charity and membership organisation based in the United Kingdom, with members worldwide. Its role is to promote and advance organ playing and choral music, and it offers music education, training and dev ...

ARCM Associate of the Royal College of Music (ARCM) was a professional qualification awarded by the Royal College of Music. Like the Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music (LRAM), it was offered in teaching or performing. There is no obvious succes ...

(born 16 May 1968) is an English choral conductor and organist, the son of the late Lucian Nethsingha, also a cathedral organist. He was appointed Organist and Master of the Choristers at

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London, England. Since 1066, it has been the location of the coronations of 40 English and British m ...

in London in 2023, having previous held similar positions at

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College, formally the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge, is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch L ...

Gloucester Cathedral Gloucester Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Peter and the Holy and Indivisible Trinity and formerly St Peter's Abbey, in Gloucester, England, stands in the north of the city near the River Severn. It originated with the establishme ...

and

Truro Cathedral The Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a Church of England cathedral in the city of Truro, Cornwall. It was built between 1880 and 1910 to a Gothic Revival design by John Loughborough Pearson on the site of the parish church of St Mary. His ...

.Westminster Abbey, Andrew Nethsingha, Organist and Master of the Choristers
Retrieved 17 January 2023.

Education

Nethsingha's early musical training was at

Exeter Cathedral School Exeter Cathedral School (ECS) is a 3–13 Mixed-sex education, mixed, Church of England, Private schools in the United Kingdom, private Day school, day and Boarding school, boarding Choir school, choir and Preparatory school (United Kingdom), pr ...

as a chorister of the cathedral, where his father, Lucian Nethsingha, was Organist and Choirmaster for over a quarter of a century. He was a music scholar at

Clifton College Clifton College is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in the city of Bristol in South West England, founded in 1862 and offering both boarding school, boarding and day school for pupils aged 13–18. In its early years, unlike mo ...

in Bristol, where he studied with Gwilym Isaac before gaining an organ scholarship to

. He later studied at the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music (RCM) is a conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the undergraduate to the doctoral level in all aspects of Western Music including pe ...

, where he won seven prizes, and at St John's College. He held organ scholarships under Christopher Robinson at

St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle St George's Chapel, formally titled The King's Free Chapel of the College of St George, Windsor Castle, at Windsor Castle in England is a castle chapel built in the late-medieval Perpendicular Gothic style. It is a Royal peculiar, Royal Peculia ...

, and under

George Guest George Guest CBE FRCO (9 February 1924 – 20 November 2002) was a Welsh organist and choral conductor. Birth and early life George Guest was born in Bangor, Gwynedd. His father was an organist and Guest assisted him by acting as organ blow ...

, both of whom were Organists and Directors of Music at St John's College.

Career

Cathedral positions

After serving as assistant organist at

Wells Cathedral Wells Cathedral, formally the , is a Church of England cathedral in Wells, Somerset, England. It is the seat of the bishop of Bath and Wells and the mother church of the diocese of Bath and Wells. There are daily Church of England services in ...

for four years, Nethsingha was appointed Master of the Choristers and Organist at

in 1994, becoming the youngest cathedral organist in the country. During his eight years there, the reputation of the choir increased considerably. In 2002 he succeeded David Briggs (whom he had also followed at

Truro Truro (; ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Cornwall, England; it is the southernmost city in the United Kingdom, just under west-south-west of Charing Cross in London. It is Cornwall's county town, s ...

) at

and held the artistic directorship of the

Three Choirs Festival 200px, Worcester cathedral 200px, Gloucester cathedral The Three Choirs Festival is a music festival held annually at the end of July, rotating among the cathedrals of the Three Counties (Hereford, Gloucester, and Worcester) and originally fe ...

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West England, South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean ...

and the conductorship of Gloucester Choral Society. As Director of Music at

from 2007 to 2022, he helped to set up the recording label "St John's Cambridge" in conjunction with

Signum Records Signum Records, also known as Signum Classics, is a classical musical record label in the UK founded in 1997. The label began with a project to make the first recording of the complete works of Thomas Tallis. The artists for the Tallis recordi ...

. The first release on this label, ''DEO'' (with music by Jonathan Harvey), won an award from

BBC Music Magazine ''BBC Music Magazine'' is a British monthly magazine that focuses primarily on classical music. The first issue appeared in September 1992. BBC Worldwide, the commercial subsidiary of the BBC, was the original owner and publisher together with ...

in 2017. Six recent albums have been editor’s choices in

Gramophone Magazine ''Gramophone'' (known as ''The Gramophone'' prior to 1970) is a magazine published monthly in London, devoted to classical music, particularly to reviews of recordings. It was founded in 1923 by the Scottish author Compton Mackenzie who continue ...

. At St Johns, Nethsingha initiated the annual Advent Commission series in 2008 with the support of an anonymous Johnian benefactor, with some of the most recent works composed by

Helen Grime Helen Grime (born 1981) is a Scottish composer of contemporary classical music. Her work, ''Virga'', was selected as one of the best ten new classical works of the 2000s by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Early life Grime's grandparents ...

, Cheryl Frances-Hoad and

Judith Bingham Judith Bingham (born 21 June 1952) is an English composer and mezzo-soprano singer. She was a member of the BBC Singers from 1983 to 1995. She is a Fellow of the Royal Northern College of Music. Bingham won the 1977 BBC Young Composer Award, an ...

. In October 2021 Nethsingha led the move to admit female singers to the Choir, to start in 2022. In July 2022 it was announced that Nethsingha would succeed James O'Donnell as Organist and Master of the Choristers of

. He took up his new role at Westminster in January 2023, and in May of that year directed the choirs at the

coronation of Charles III and Camilla The Coronation of the British monarch, coronation of Charles III and his wife, Queen Camilla, Camilla, as Monarchy of the United Kingdom, king and List of British royal consorts, queen of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth re ...

in 2023.

Other work

As an orchestral conductor, Nethsingha has led the

Philharmonia Orchestra The Philharmonia Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It was founded in 1945 by Walter Legge, a classical music record producer for EMI Classics, EMI. Among the conductors who worked with the orchestra in its early years were Rich ...

in works that include Mahler’s ''8th Symphony'', Beethoven’s ''9th Symphony'', Britten’s ''War Requiem'', Brahms’ ''Requiem'', Elgar’s ''The Dream of Gerontius'' and '' The Kingdom'', Walton’s ''Belshazzar’s Feast'', Poulenc’s ''Gloria'' and Duruflé’s ''Requiem''. He has also worked with the

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London, England. The RPO was established by Thomas Beecham in 1946. In its early days, the orchestra secured profitable recording contracts and important engagemen ...

, the

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) is a British orchestra based in Birmingham, England. It is the resident orchestra at Symphony Hall, Birmingham in Birmingham, which has been its principal performance venue since 1991. Its adminis ...

, the

London Mozart Players London Mozart Players (LMP) are a British chamber orchestra founded in 1949. LMP are the longest-established chamber orchestra in the United Kingdom. Since 1989, the orchestra has been Resident Orchestra at Fairfield Halls, Croydon. History Begin ...

, the

Britten Sinfonia Britten Sinfonia is a chamber orchestra ensemble based in Cambridge, UK. It was created in 1992, following an initiative from Eastern Arts and a number of key figures including Nicholas Cleobury, who recognised the need for an orchestra in the ...

, the Orchestra of St. Luke's in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, the

Aarhus Symphony Orchestra The Aarhus Symfoniorkester (Aarhus Symphony Orchestra) is the principal orchestra for the Danish city of Aarhus. Description Established in 1935 as ''Aarhus By-Orkester'' (Aarhus City Orchestra), since 1982 it has performed most of its concerts in ...

and the

BBC Concert Orchestra The BBC Concert Orchestra is a British concert orchestra based in London, one of the British Broadcasting Corporation's five radio orchestras. With around fifty players, it is the only one of the five BBC orchestras which is not a full-scale sym ...

. Venues have included the

BBC Proms The BBC Proms is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in central London. Robert Newman founded The Proms in 1895. Since 1927, the ...

, the

Concertgebouw Concertgebouw may refer to one of the following concert halls: * Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Netherlands * Concertgebouw, Bruges, Belgium * Concertgebouw de Vereeniging, Netherlands {{disambiguation Buildings and structures disambiguation pages ...

in Amsterdam, the

Verbier Festival The Verbier Festival is a two week annual international music festival which is held in late July and early August in the mountain resort of Verbier southeast of Lausanne, Switzerland. Begun by Swedish expatriate in 1994, it has attracted int ...

Suntory Hall The is a concert venue in the central Akasaka district of Tokyo, Japan. Part of the Ark Hills complex, it consists of a main concert hall, widely considered one of the finest in the world for its acoustics – Herbert von Karajan called it “ ...

in Tokyo, the

Konzerthaus Berlin The Konzerthaus Berlin is a concert hall in Berlin, the home of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin. Situated on the Gendarmenmarkt square in the central Mitte district of the city, it was originally built as a theater. It initially operated from 1 ...

and the Singapore Esplanade.

Personal life

In 1996 Nethsingha married Lucy Sellwood, the current

Liberal Democrat Several political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party, Democratic Liberal Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties have usually followed liberalism as ideology, although they can vary widely from very progr ...

leader of

Cambridgeshire County Council Cambridgeshire County Council is the county council for non-metropolitan county of Cambridgeshire, England. The non-metropolitan county is smaller than the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county, which additionally includes the City o ...

and former

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

(MEP). They have three children.

Recordings

* ''The Tree:'' a live album celebrating the heritage of the choir. The album plays with the idea of growth, inspired by the tree in the

Book of Job The Book of Job (), or simply Job, is a book found in the Ketuvim ("Writings") section of the Hebrew Bible and the first of the Poetic Books in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The language of the Book of Job, combining post-Babylonia ...

.
St John’s Cambridge
' label with

, November 2021 * ''Magnificat 2:'' a second album of settings of the Evening Canticles.
St John’s Cambridge
' label with

, April 2021.

Gramophone A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration waveforms are recorded as corresponding physic ...

Editor’s Choice, June 2021 * ''Advent Live - Volume 2:'' a second collection of live performances from Advent Carol Services at St John's College.
St John’s Cambridge
' label with

, November 2020 * ''Pious Anthems and Voluntaries:'' a recording of the nine-part cycle by

Michael Finnissy Michael Peter Finnissy (born 17 March 1946) is an English composer, pianist, and pedagogue. An immensely prolific composer, his music is "notable for its dramatic urgency and expressive immediacy". Although he rejects the label, he is often reg ...

written whilst Composer in Residence at St John’s College.
St John's Cambridge
' label with

, 2020.

Editor’s Choice, September 2020 &

Awards Finalist (Contemporary), 2021.

Choral and Song Choice, October 2020. The music was choral nominee at the 2020

Ivors Composer Awards The Ivor Novello Awards, named after the Welsh entertainer Ivor Novello, are awards for songwriting and composing. They have been presented annually in London by the Ivors Academy, formerly called the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers, a ...

* ''Magnificat:'' an album dedicated to settings of the Evening Canticles.
St John’s Cambridge
' label with

, 2019.

Editor’s Choice, Awards Issue 2019 * ''Locus Iste'', a collection that takes music from each decade of the 150 year history of the College Chapel.
St John’s Cambridge
' label with

, 2019.

Editor’s Choice, July 2019 * ''Advent Live - Volume 1:'' a selection of live performances from Advent Carol Services at St John's College.
St John’s Cambridge
' label with

, October 2018 *''Mass in G minor'': the music of

Ralph Vaughan Williams Ralph Vaughan Williams ( ; 12 October 1872– 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over ...

. Joseph Wicks (organ), David Blackadder (trumpet).
St John's Cambridge
' label with

, 2018. BBC Music Magazine Choral and Song Choice, July 2018 * ''Kyrie'': works by

Francis Poulenc Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (; 7 January 189930 January 1963) was a French composer and pianist. His compositions include mélodie, songs, solo piano works, chamber music, choral pieces, operas, ballets, and orchestral concert music. Among th ...

Zoltán Kodály Zoltán Kodály (, ; , ; 16 December 1882 – 6 March 1967) was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, music pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is well known internationally as the creator of the Kodály method of music education. ...

and

Leoš Janáček Leoš Janáček (, 3 July 1854 – 12 August 1928) was a Czech composer, Music theory, music theorist, Folkloristics, folklorist, publicist, and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian folk music, Moravian and other Slavs, Slavic music, includin ...

. Joseph Wicks and Glen Dempsey (organ),

Anne Denholm Anne Denholm is a Welsh harpist born in Carmarthenshire, who held the position of Official Harpist to the Prince of Wales from 2015 to 2019. Education Denholm was educated at Ysgol Gynradd y Dderwen and Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Bro Myrddin. She ...

(harp).
St John's Cambridge
' label with

, September 2017 * ''Christmas with St John's''. Joseph Wicks (organ).
St John's Cambridge
' label with

, October 2016 * ''Deo'': music by Jonathan Harvey. Edward Picton-Turbervill (organ).
St John's Cambridge
' label with

, May 2016.

Award Winner (Choral) 2017

References

External links

Director of MusicDirector of Music , StJohns
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nethsingha, Andrew 1968 births Living people People educated at Exeter Cathedral School English classical organists English male classical organists English male conductors (music) British people of Sri Lankan descent Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge Fellows of the Royal College of Organists 21st-century English conductors (music) 21st-century English organists 21st-century English male musicians Master of the Choristers at Westminster Abbey