He grew up in Higham Ferrers in Northamptonshire, where he began taking piano lessons when he was eight years old, and played the organ at his church when he was twelve.

[1] Bradshaw received a Bachelor of Arts with honours in English from University of London in 1965.

In 1993 he conducted the company's production of Bartok's "Bluebeard's Castle" and Schoenberg's "Erwartung", which toured to the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York and to the Edinburgh International Festival.

[7] In 2004, he was made a member of the Order of Ontario for having "brought the COC international acclaim, including a first-ever invitation to the Edinburgh Festival, garnering two prestigious awards".

[10] On 15 August 2007, at age 63, Bradshaw died after collapsing from an apparent heart attack while at Toronto Pearson International Airport.