After studying with his father and performing locally from age 14, Bream attended the Royal College of Music while pursuing private extracurricular study of the guitar. He was much influenced by the styles of Andrés Segovia and Francisco Tárrega, the great Spanish guitarist of the 19th century. After Bream's first major public recital (London, 1950), he performed in concerts throughout England, often to audiences unfamiliar with the classical guitar repertoire. In 1954 he began touring internationally. He had taken up the lute in 1950, which led to a collaboration with the British tenor Peter Pears in performances of lute songs by John Dowland and other Elizabethan composers. In 1961 he organized the Julian Bream Consort, one of the first groups to specialize in early ensemble music. The Consort is composed of violin, alto flute, bass viol, pandora, cittern, and lute. Composers who wrote music for Bream include Benjamin Britten, William Walton, and Malcolm Arnold. Another great influence on Bream was Django Reinhardt, the Belgian jazz guitarist. Bream was noted for his rhythmic precision and the exquisite lyricism of his tones, which were equaled by only a few other guitarists in the world.