Tate was born in Salisbury, England, with spina bifida, a major birth defect, and also had an associated spinal curvature, kyphosis.

During his university years and just after he went to major music events "I listened while I was at Cambridge and when I came to London ... to the Goodall Mastersingers, to Giulini and Klemperer conducting the Philharmonia, to Monteux's last concerts with the LSO.

His range at the Royal Opera House encompassed Mozart (La clemenza di Tito in 1982, Così fan tutte in 1989, Le nozze di Figaro in 1991, Idomeneo in 1989), Strauss (Ariadne auf Naxos in 1985, Der Rosenkavalier in 1989, Arabella in 1990), Wagner (Lohengrin in 1988, Der fliegende Holländer in 2011) and French repertoire (Manon in 1987, Les Contes d'Hoffmann in 1991, Carmen in 1994).

[8] In 1985, he was appointed the first principal conductor of the English Chamber Orchestra (ECO), with which group he undertook a recording of 51 symphonies by Mozart for EMI in the 1980s,[6] and held the post until 2000.

[11] In September 1986, Tate became principal conductor of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the first person in the company's history to have that title.

[3] He conducted The Ring at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris in 1994,[3] In October 2007, the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra announced the appointment of Tate as its next chief conductor,[14][15] and he took up the post in 2009.

The Opera magazine obituary noted that his "recordings, notably of Lulu, Hänsel und Gretel and Elektra, demonstrate his emotive power and continual care that the singing should never be drowned by the pit".

[18][19] A portrait of Jeffrey Tate is in David Blum's book Quintet, Five Journeys toward Musical Fulfillment (Cornell University Press, 1999).

[10] His version of incidental music to Peer Gynt by Grieg with the Berlin Philharmonic and soloist Sylvia McNair was described by Diapason magazine in a survey as a "vital, almost breathless", almost ideal recording.

[26] As a keyboard player he played organ for recordings of Vivaldi choral works in the 1970s, and was part of the continuo for Le nozze di Figaro in 1982, conducted by Georg Solti on Decca.