As a conductor he toured for Arts Council Contemporary Music Network and performed at state occasions for Queen Elizabeth II, gave numerous broadcasts and recordings for BBC Radio 3, BBC Two television, and ITV, and made recordings for EMI of Britten and Stravinsky.
[2] He conducted first performances and commissioned works from among others Harrison Birtwistle, Dominic Muldowney, Michael Nyman, Nigel Osborne, Giles Swayne, Judith Weir, and Mark Anthony Turnage.
[citation needed] Whitfield played solo ocarina on a recording of works by Frank Denyer, Continuum CCD 1026 (1991) and solo recorder under Richard Hickox in Benjamin Britten Noye's Fludde on Virgin Classics.
Before leaving Oxford he was invited in 1978 by Lillian Hochhauser to audition for Rudolph Barshai who immediately offered him the post of first bassoon with the Israel Chamber Orchestra.
His arrangement for wind quintet of Mozart's Serenade in Bb, K361 was published by Spartan Press in late 2014.