Following the family's move to Croydon, Surrey in 1959, he obtained a music scholarship to continue his secondary education at the Trinity School of John Whitgift.
He went on to win prizes at the Geneva and Vienna International Competitions which resulted in the award of a Gulbenkian Fellowship to participate in a course of intensive study held by Pablo Casals in Puerto Rico in 1967.
He made an impressive impact on the musical scene with his commanding performance of the Bach Suites for unaccompanied 'cello, in London (1972),[3] at the Kennedy Centre (1973),[4] and Vienna (1974).
He reaped many musical successes in his concerts and broadcasts in the UK as well as abroad in Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Portugal, Switzerland and Greece in addition to Austria and the U.S.
For his Henry Wood Promenade Concert debut in 1974 he played the Elgar cello concerto, with Sir Charles Groves, and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.
At the Bath and English Bach Festivals he played chamber music with Alan Civil, Clifford Curzon, Leon Goossens, Heinz Holliger and Yehudi Menuhin.
[6] His broad repertory included the most popular concertos, but also embraced pieces by Lennox Berkeley, Frank Bridge and Wilfred Josephs.
In 1975 he gave the first performance of the cello concerto by Arnold Cooke with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sir Charles Groves at the 81st season of Proms.