Rattle was born in Liverpool and studied at Liverpool College. He learned to play the piano and the violin. He started to play in orchestras, but as a percussionist. He went to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London in 1971. Three years later he won the John Player Conductor Competition. He organised and conducted a performance of Mahler's Second Symphony whilst still at the Academy. He spent a year studying English Language and literature at St Anne's College, Oxford.