His father Robert (Bob) Northey is a retired university administrator and former president of the Ballarat Symphony Orchestra and his mother Wendy is a forensic psychologist and pianist.
[5] He attended Ballarat Clarendon College where he studied flute, clarinet and saxophone with Barry Currie and arranging with Graeme Vendy,[6] and where his skills as a saxophonist, clarinettist and flautist were first developed; in his early years he also played piano, trumpet and violin.
[6] During his teenage years he began working professionally in local pit orchestras in Ballarat for musical theatre and operetta productions.
After school he moved to Melbourne, where he worked as a freelance musician, composer and arranger for close to ten years.
In 1996 Northey commenced performance studies in classical saxophone at the University of Melbourne Faculty of Music, graduating in 1999 with First Class Honours.
[19] 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.
[21] In 2004 his diploma concert with the Sibelius Academy Symphony Orchestra was awarded the international jury's highest possible mark.
[22] He completed his tertiary studies in 2006 as a guest student in Jorma Panula's class at Sweden's Royal College of Music, Stockholm.
[28] In 2012 he was a last-minute replacement when Scottish conductor Donald Runnicles fell ill before an MSO Master Series concert, which included Mahler's 4th Symphony and Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No.
[29] Contemporary compositions he has premiered include works by Deborah Cheetham, Peter Sculthorpe, Catherine Milliken, Brett Dean, Elena Kats-Chernin, Matthew Hindson,[16] and Brenton Broadstock.