Raised in his native New Zealand, Ross Pople's musically formative years were spent among some of the finest European emigrants to that country, such as Georg Tintner, Peter Langer and Franz Rosner, who took keen interest in his development. At the age of sixteen Pople's talent propelled him to Europe to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Muriel Taylor, and to the Paris Conservatoire for study with André Navarra and Nadia Boulanger.

Pople's musicality did not go unnoticed. At 23 Menuhin hand-picked him for the Menuhin Festival Orchestra to be his solo principal cellist, where his ability was given free expression touring the world. It was during one of these tours that he introduced the music of George Benjamin to the Carnegie Hall audience. His chamber-music partners at the time included Clifford Curzon, Yehudi and Hepzibah Menuhin, Louis Kentner and George Malcolm.

At 26 Pople was invited by Sir Colin Davis and Pierre Boulez to be principal cellist of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the youngest ever in the history of the orchestra. He worked with Boulez, Penderecki, Lutoslawski, Solti, Bernstein, Pritchard, Rozhdestvensky, Svetlanov, Sir Colin Davis, Maazel, Haitink and Ozawa.