He became internationally famous as the 12-year-old boy treble soloist in the March 1963 recording of Allegri's Miserere with the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, under David Willcocks.
As a violinist and concertmaster, he played from 1975 to 1985 under the baton of Iván Fischer, John Eliot Gardiner, Charles Mackerras, Roger Norrington, and Simon Rattle (at Glyndebourne Opera).
He has also played as soloist on baroque violin with Frans Brüggen, Philippe Herreweghe, Christopher Hogwood, René Jacobs, Trevor Pinnock and Ton Koopman.
In 2006 he made his debut with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam and returned to San Francisco Opera to conduct a new production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro.
In 2010, he made his debut at the Sydney Opera House with three concerts, and in 2011 he was affectionately named the "Rafa Nadal of conductors" by Radio New Zealand.