He was born in West Wickham, England in 1960. He studied music at the University of Cambridge. He began his career by conducting the opera Aida at the Welsh National Opera. As a resident conductor with the Welsh National Opera, he conducted the operas: Falstaff, Jenůfa, Ernani, Rigoletto, Madama Butterfly, Eugene Onegin, etc. He collaborated with the English Chamber Orchestra, the Northern Sinfonia and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. He also conducted the premiere of John Buller’s Bakxai [Bacchae] at the English National Opera; Janáček’s opera From the House of the Dead [Z mrtvého domu] at the Vancouver Opera; Carmen at the Seattle Opera; the premiere of Siegfried Matthus’ Cornet Christoph; Rilke's Song of love and death of cornet Christopher Rilke [Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke]; and The Makropulos Affair [Věc Makropulos] for the Glyndebourne Touring Opera. He collaborated with the operas of New Zealand, Stuttgart, Cologne, etc. During the period from 1993 to 1996 he worked with the English Touring Opera, directing the operas: The marriage of Figaro [Le nozze di Figaro], The merry widow [Die lustige witwe], The abduction from the seraglio [Die entführung aus dem serail], Thus do they all [Così fan tutte], La bohème, Orpheus and Eurydice [Orfeo ed Euridice] and Werther. In 1996 he was awarded the Arts Foundation Conducting Fellowship. He is currently the Artistic Director of Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, Lisbon. He worked with the GNO once, conducting Stravinsky’s Maura (Greek premiere), as well as Weill’s The seven deadly sins [Die sieben todsünden] and Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, in a single production (2007/08).