At the age of 12 he won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music after Sir Reginald Thatcher, the then principal of the R.A.M, heard Friend perform for the first time.
In 1964 Friend became the youngest ever leader/concertmaster of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, working closely with Bernard Haitink, Barenboim, Solti and Giulini.
In 1975, he was invited by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra to be their Concertmaster, playing concerts and recording worldwide with Bernstein, Boulez and Mehta.
[7] He was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to music.
[8][9] In 2019, he published a workbook, The Violin in 5ths — Developing Intonation and Sound, in which he detailed a teaching method regarding intonation and sound that he has developed and perfected over decades of experience working with many virtuosos including Jascha Heifetz and David Oistrakh.