Andrew Nethsingha

A choral director steeped in the storied English cathedral tradition, Andrew Nethsingha nevertheless pioneered innovations such as live webcasts with the Choir of St. John's College, Cambridge, where he holds the post of director of music. Beyond his choral work, he has led symphony orchestras throughout Britain and abroad, and in July 2022 he was appointed Organist and Master of Choristers at Westminster Abbey.

Born on May 16, 1968, Nethsingha spent his childhood in Exeter, England. His father, Lucian Nethsingha, who traced his roots to Sri Lanka, served as organist and choir director at Exeter Cathedral. Andrew received his earliest musical instruction as a chorister there and soon resolved to pursue the same vocation, later attending Clifton College. He continued his studies as an organ scholar first at the Royal College of Music and then at St. John's College, Cambridge. After an initial appointment as assistant organist at Wells Cathedral, he assumed the dual role of organist and Master of the Choristers at Truro Cathedral in 1994, remaining for eight years and becoming, at the time, Britain's youngest major church organist. In 2002 he succeeded David Briggs once more when he took charge of the choir at Gloucester Cathedral, where he also directed the Gloucester Choral Society and the choirs of the historic Three Choirs Festival. Returning to his alma mater in 2007, he became director of music at St. John's College, Cambridge—an institution founded in 1511—while introducing modern practices that included internet broadcasts and an active social-media presence.

His work expanded to include orchestral engagements with ensembles such as the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, encompassing both choral-orchestral pieces and purely instrumental works like Gershwin's An American in Paris. International tours have taken him as far as China, where he conducted Handel's Messiah, HWV 56. With the St. John's College Choir he has made numerous recordings, first for Chandos and later for Signum Classics, the latter issuing the 2019 album Magnificat, devoted to contemporary British settings of the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis. That same year his wife, Lucy Nethsingha, was elected to the European Parliament as a Liberal Democrat. The choir maintained its output through the COVID-19 pandemic, releasing five further albums on Signum Classics in 2020 and 2021, followed in 2022 by Eastertide Evensong.