the young barbirolli began to play the violin when he was four, but soon changed to the cello. he later said that this was at the instigation of his grandfather who, exasperated at the child's habit of wandering around while practising the violin, bought him a small cello to stop him from "getting in everybody's way". his education at st. clement danes grammar school overlapped, from 1910, with a scholarship at trinity college of music. as a trinity student, he made his concert debut in a cello concerto in the queen's hall in 1911. the following year he won a scholarship to the royal academy of music, which he attended from 1912 to 1916, studying harmony, counterpoint and theory under dr. j. b. mcewen and the cello with herbert walenn. in 1914 he was joint winner of the academy's charles rube prize for ensemble playing, and in 1916 "the musical times" singled him out as "that excellent young 'cello player, mr giovanni barbirolli." the principal of the academy, sir alexander mackenzie, had forbidden students to play the chamber music of ravel, which he regarded as "a pernicious influence". barbirolli was keenly interested in modern music, and he and three colleagues secretly rehearsed ravel's string quartet in the privacy of a men's lavatory in the academy.