Robert Quinney is Organist of New College, Oxford. In addition to the daily direction of New College’s world-famous choir, his work comprises teaching, lecturing, and examining, as a Tutorial Fellow of the college and an Associate Professor at the University Faculty of Music. He has conducted New College Choir in concert at home and abroad – notably in the Sistine Chapel in Rome, and with The English Concert in New York City and at Wigmore and Cadogan Halls in London. Under his direction the choir continues to make recordings for its own label, Novum; the first, a disc of Symphony Anthems by John Blow, was shortlisted for a 2017 Gramophone Award: ‘an assured synthesis of elegant musicality, judicious ear for contrapuntal detail and informed scholarship’.
He maintains a parallel career as a solo organist, and is a prolific recording artist: his discs of organ music by J.S. Bach, Elgar, Dupré, Wagner and Brahms (and several CDs with Westminster Abbey Choir and The Sixteen) have been widely acclaimed. In February 2017 he made his debut at the Royal Festival Hall with an all-Bach recital, and later in the same year appeared for the first time at the BBC Proms, playing organ music by Bach and Mendelssohn.
Robert Quinney read music at King’s College, Cambridge, where he was Organ Scholar. After four years as Assistant Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral, he became Sub-Organist of Westminster Abbey in 2004. While at the Abbey he performed on concert tours to the United States, Australia and Russia, at several televised services including the Marriage of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. In April 2013 he moved to Peterborough Cathedral, where he was Director of Music for 16 months. Between 2009 and 2014 he was Director of Oundle for Organists, whose residential courses continue to attract young organists from all over the world.