Harvey was Heberden Organ Scholar at Brasenose College, Oxford, where he studied from 1930 until 1933.
[2] While there he became friendly with other musicians such as Joseph Cooper, Basil Douglas and Humphrey Searle.
In 1941 he conducted the BBC Singers in John Ireland's Spring, the Sweet Spring, A Cradle Song, Variations on Cadet Rousselle, When May is in His Prime, Fain Would I Change That Note, and A New Year Carol.
[2] He conducted The New Symphony Orchestra performing Fela Sowande's African Suite for London Records in 1951.
[1] He shared an apartment with Peter Pears and Basil Douglas in the 1930s[6] and was responsible for some important broadcast performances of Benjamin Britten, including The Company of Heaven (1937) and The World of the Spirit (1938), both composed under suggestion of Harvey, and the first performance in England of Diversions, Op.