Simon Rattle
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.