English choral conductor and organist (b. 1968)
Andrew Mark Nethsingha, FRCO, ARCM (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 in London in 2023, having previous held similar positions at St John's College, Cambridge, Gloucester Cathedral and Truro Cathedral.[1]
Education
Nethsingha's early musical training was at Exeter Cathedral School 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 in Bristol, where he studied with Gwilym Isaac before gaining an organ scholarship to St John's College, Cambridge.[2] He later studied at the Royal College of Music, 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, and under George Guest, both of whom were Organists and Directors of Music at St John's College.[1]
Career
Cathedral positions
After serving as assistant organist at Wells Cathedral for four years, Nethsingha was appointed Master of the Choristers and Organist at Truro Cathedral in 1994, becoming the youngest cathedral organist in the country. During his eight years there, the reputation of the choir increased considerably.[3] In 2002 he succeeded David Briggs (whom he had also followed at Truro) at Gloucester Cathedral and held the artistic directorship of the Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester and the conductorship of Gloucester Choral Society.
As Director of Music at St John's College, Cambridge from 2007 to 2022, he helped to set up the recording label "St John's Cambridge" in conjunction with Signum Records.[4] The first release on this label, DEO (with music by Jonathan Harvey), won an award from BBC Music Magazine in 2017.[5] Six recent albums have been editor’s choices in Gramophone Magazine. 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, Cheryl Frances-Hoad and Judith Bingham.[6] In October 2021 Nethsingha led the move to admit female singers to the Choir, to start in 2022.[7]
In July 2022 it was announced that Nethsingha would succeed James O'Donnell as Organist and Master of the Choristers of Westminster Abbey. He took up his new role at Westminster in January 2023,[1] and in May of that year directed the choirs at the coronation of Charles III and Camilla in 2023.[8]
Other work
As an orchestral conductor, Nethsingha has led the Philharmonia Orchestra 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 City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the London Mozart Players, the Britten Sinfonia, the Orchestra of St. Luke's in New York, the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Concert Orchestra. Venues have included the BBC Proms, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Verbier Festival, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Konzerthaus Berlin and the Singapore Esplanade.[1]
Personal life
In 1996 Nethsingha married Lucy Sellwood, the current Liberal Democrat leader of Cambridgeshire County Council[9] and former Member of the European Parliament (MEP).[10] They have three children.[11]
