Howard is a Mus.B (Hons) graduate from the University of Manchester. He also holds LRAM, LTCL and ARCM (Hons) diplomas. As a postgraduate pianist at the Royal Northern College of Music, he gained a Diploma in Performance Studies, where his piano studies were undertaken with the distinguished Russian pianist and international teacher, Sulamita Aronovsky. He completed his Performance based MA (Dist) from Salford University, majoring in conducting. This was followed in July 2009 by his subsequent award of ‘Doctor of Musical Arts’ (DMA) from Salford University.

As a pianist and conductor he has performed at many major concert venues throughout the United Kingdom. He has also made regular visits overseas to Canada and the USA, as well as to The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Austria,
France, and Switzerland.

Howard has held posts including the National Bandmaster for the Salvation Army in the UK from 1988 to 1992, during his period of officership within the SA; Director of Music for the SA in the Netherlands, and conductor of the Amsterdam Staff Band from 2000 through to 2006. From 2007 to 2015 he held the post as Director of Classical Performance at the University of Salford. He has also been Bandmaster of the Boscombe Salvation Army band since April 2002.

He has also often worked as a guest conductor for a number of major bands, including: appearing with the Leyland Band at the RNCM Festival of Brass in 2008; directing the Grimethorpe Colliery Band in the summer of 2008 as well as at the RNCM Festival of Brass in 2011; as well as directing at the RNCM Festival of Brass 2010 with the famous Bighouse and Rastrick Band. He has also been engaged as the musical director for Jaren Hornmusikkforening, an Elite Division band in Norway, from January 2012 to 2017. He also directed the Eikanger-Bjorsvik Band in Bergen in 2017 in between their successes at the Norwegian National and the European Championships. His contesting appearances include directing the Woodfalls Band at the British Open in 2016, and a first section area win with Bournemouth Concert Brass in 2018.

In addition he has undertaken work as an examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music in Singapore, Macao, China, Poland, Oman and the UK, since 1998. He has been engaged on adjudication assignments for brass bands and music festivals, both in the UK and in The Netherlands.