Beginning his education in New Zealand, Ralph Aldrich continued post-graduate studies at the Guildhall School of Music, London and the Vienna State Academy; in Switzerland with Max Rostal and in the United States with William Primrose. He was associated with such European ensembles as the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and Vienna Soloists, the London Mozart Players, the Menuhin Orchestra and the English Chamber Orchestra. Chamber Music ensembles included the MacNaghten Quartet, England, Trio Chelys of Luxembourg and the Hart Piano Quartet and Boccherini String Trio of Canada

Formerly on the faculty of the Cambridge College of Arts, (UK), he was also Principal Viola of the Cambridge University Music Society Orchestra directed by Sir David Willcocks. He is professor emeritus and past chair of the performance department, Don Wright Faculty of Music, Western University. He has also been a guest professor at McGill University and the Conservatoire de Musique, Montreal and on the faculties of Domaine Forget and the Banff School of Arts. In the 2003 Mayor of London’s New Year Honours he received the Arts Award for services to music and in 2009 a “Lifetime Achievement Award” from the Canadian Viola Society.

Ralph was one of the founders of the Jeffery Concerts, first at the Aeolian Hall, and later at Wolf Performance Hall, and St. John the Evangelist Anglican Church in London. He worked tirelessly with the Gordon Jeffery Music Foundation and the Gordon Jeffery Music Trust from 1986 until his departure from London in 2020. The Board then created an award in his name at the Don Wright Faculty of Music at Western - The Ralph Aldrich String Award, a scholarship awarded to promising string players pursuing their studies in music. Ralph Aldrich passed away in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, on December 19, 2024, at the age of 91.