When Garrett was four years old his father purchased a violin for his older brother. The young Garrett took an interest and soon learned to play. A year later, he took part in a competition and won first prize. By the age of seven, he studied violin at the Lübeck Conservatoire. When he was nine years old he gave his debut at the Festival Kissinger Sommer, and by the age of 12, Garrett began working with the distinguished Polish violinist Ida Haendel, often traveling to London and other European cities to meet her. After leaving home at 17, he enrolled at the Royal College of Music in London, leaving after the first semester. On being asked in an interview in 2008 if he was expelled, Garrett responded: "Well, expelled wasn't the official term… It was mutually agreed that me and the RCM were going separate ways after the first semester. I did skip some lessons – but I also broke in to do extra practice, so that didn't help!" In 1999, he moved to New York to attend the Juilliard School, in 2003 winning the School's Composition Competition with a fugue composed in the style of Johann Sebastian Bach. While at Juilliard he studied under Itzhak Perlman, one of the first people to do so, and graduated in 2004.
