In 1996 Northey commenced performance studies in classical saxophone at the
University of Melbourne Faculty 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 University of Melbourne Faculty of Music. In 2001 he won the Nelly Apt Scholarship for study in Israel. The same year he won the Symphony Australia Young Conductor of the year competition, marking the first time the two most prestigious Australian conducting prizes had been won by the same person in the same year. Part of the prize for the latter award was the opportunity to study in Sydney with
Jorma Panula, under the aegis of the Symphony Australia Conductor Development Program. In 2002 he was the highest placed applicant to the orchestral conducting course at the
Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland. He studied there for three years under
Leif Segerstam and
Atso Almila. In 2004 his diploma concert with the Sibelius Academy Symphony Orchestra was awarded the international jury's highest possible mark. The program included the European premiere of
Brett Dean's
Amphitheatre. He completed his tertiary studies in 2006 as a guest student in Jorma Panula's class at Sweden's
Royal College of Music, Stockholm. In 2007 he was chosen from a worldwide field as one of three participants in the International Conductor's Academy of the Allianz Cultural Foundation. This involved a year-long mentorship with the
London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) and the
Philharmonia Orchestra, with conductors
Christoph von Dohnányi and
Vladimir Jurowski. It culminated in a performance of
Stravinsky's
Symphony in C in June 2008 at the
Royal Festival Hall in London. ==Conducting==