He is a trumpeter born in Bournemouth, England who studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London and joined the New Philharmonic Orchestra in 1966. His studies under Maurice Andre led him to become a pioneer in Britain of the piccolo trumpet.
He joined the Royal Philharmonic in 1968 where he became principal trumpet and in 1972 took the same position at the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He has also performed alongside the Munich Bach Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble, The Beatles, Sir Cliff Richard and many major London orchestras including the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.
He made numerous recordings including The Best of Baroque, Greatest Hits and Strings & Brass with the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble, Magical Mystery Tour with the Beatles, Now You See Me, Now You Don’t with Sir Cliff Richard, Tanglewood ’63 with Michael Gibbs, Drowning By Numbers with Michael Nyman, Bach Spectacular/Romantic Rachmaninoff by Tutti Camerata, Fish Out of Water by Chris Squire, soundtracks such as Diamonds are Forever, Lawrence of Arabia and Les Miserables..
As a teacher he taught at the Royal Academy, the Royal Military School of Music, the Birmingham School of Music and the Cathedral School in Wells, England.
He died in Wells, Somerset, England of septicaemia and kidney failure when he was 53.
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields recordings
Concertino for Trumpet in E flat Major (Johann Georg Albrechtsberger)
Deutsche Grammaphon DG B0005042-02 (CD: Masters of the Trumpet)
Conductor – Neville Marriner
Trumpet – John Wilbraham
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