Martin Neary's career in church music began as a chorister at HM's Chapels Royal. At Cambridge University, where he was Organ Scholar of Gonville and Caius College, he read Theology and Music. His principal appointments have been as Director of Music at Winchester Cathedral and Westminster Abbey. He has been at the forefront of the early music movement as well as championing much contemporary church music, and is particularly known for his work with British composers Jonathan Harvey and John Tavener, with whom he has enjoyed exceptionally creative relationships. In 1978 he conducted the first complete performance of Bach's Matthäus Passion in England with period instruments, while in 1995 his CD Purcell: Music for Queen Mary was nominated for a Grammy award.