In 1984, he studied violin in David Takeno[1]'s class at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama of London, from which he graduated in 1986.
His career as a conductor began in 1997, when he led the Royal Ballet of Covent Garden.
In 2002, he made his debut with the Opera North in Ravel's L'Enfant et les Sortilèges and Stravinsky's Petrushka, and conducted Massenet's Werther at the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen.
In Australia, he conducted Gounod's Faust, Orphée aux Enfers and La Traviata in Sydney, Manon at the Melbourne Opera, and Carmen with the New Zealand Opera in Wellington and Auckland.
In 2005, he conducted a production of Bizet's Les Pêcheurs de perles in New York, and in 2007, Sergei Prokofiev's Cinderella in Tokyo.