He attended Whitton Secondary School in Middlesex, and the London College of Music, where he graduated as a Fellow.
Dame Janet Baker selected his recording of Scarlatti sonatas as her "favourite" on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs in 1982.
"[5] The Scarlatti series was followed by recordings of Haydn and Mozart piano works on fortepiano, harpsichord works by Soler and Seixas, and a five disc set of harpsichord and organ music by Girolamo Frescobaldi, the latter included in the 2012 Penguin Guide to the 1000 Finest Classical Recordings.
[7] Lester is the author of several articles including sixteenth century Italian fingering methods, and another on Frescobaldi for Harpsichord and Fortepiano magazine.
In 2013 he participated in International Piano Magazine's Scarlatti symposium with Peter Katin, Nikolai Demidenko, Yevgeny Sudbyn, and Andreas Staier [8] Since 2009, Lester has devoted his attention to recording 16th century Italian keyboard music for Nimbus.