Australian conductor Benjamin Northey is flying to America, where he is set to conduct the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Jazz at Lincoln Centre Orchestra in a one-night-only performance of Wynton Marsalis’s All Rise on 9 May.

Benjamin Northey. Photo © Stefanie Zingsheim/Sydney Conservatorium of Music

At Pittsburgh’s Heinz Hall, Northey will lead the Marsalis work for a second time after leading the work in a 2023 performance with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Northey also led the MSO on its 2019 US tour.

The opportunity comes at a rich time few years for Australian conductors looking abroad: in 2026, Leonard Weiss became the first Australian to conduct the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a subscription concert, and in 2024, Simone Young became the first Australian and woman to conduct the Ring Cycle at the Bayreuth Festival.

Originally trained as a classical saxophonist, Northey is currently the Chief Conductor of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Conductor-in-Residence of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. In 2025, he was appointed as the Sydney Conservatorium of Music’s inaugural Professor of Conducting. He has conducted leading international orchestras including the London, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Malaysian  Philharmonic Orchestras, the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzberg and every major Australian symphony orchestra, amongst other engagements.

Last week, Northey led the SSO in its Symphonic Cinema: The Planets concert, which earned a five-star Limelight review; there’s just a one-week gap between his Sydney and US concerts.

“Hopefully [I’ll] get some sleep on this flight because that schedule, even for me, is quite a lot,” he said in a video posted to Facebook.

“But I am looking forward to this…  to work with Wynton and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and all these wonderful voices is a real highlight, I have to say.”