He held posts at the universities of Bristol, Birmingham, Cairo, Cambridge, London and the United Nations.

He then became Head of Brass teaching at Wells Cathedral School and a tutor at Dartington College of Arts.

Here he became interested in disadvantage and poverty, and taught at the Al Noor Wal Amal School for blind children.

In 1985 he broke the cultural boycott of South Africa to be a principal trumpet with the PACT (SABC) Symphony Orchestra, to experience apartheid.

He taught music in the Alexandra, Gauteng township, and co-founded the Johannesburg-based education NGO for street-working children, Street-wise,[1] with Jill (Swart) Kruger.