Jonathan Freeman-Attwood is a performer, writer, educator, recording producer and Principal of the Royal Academy of Music in London. He studied at the University of Toronto and subsequently engaged in research at Christ Church, Oxford. Soon after, he became Dean of Undergraduate Studies at the Academy, where he led a pioneering new degree course in performance studies under the aegis of King's College London. He then became Vice-Principal & Director of Studies, a post he held until 2008. In 1997, he was elected an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music and in 2001 received a personal chair in his conferment as a Professor of the University of London.
As a trumpet player, Jonathan Freeman-Attwood has attracted plaudits from the press for his solo recordings. In 2004, a disc of works by Rheinberger, Strauss and Elgar, entitled 'The Trumpets that Time Forgot' (Linn Records), heralded a series of recording projects exploring ways in which the trumpet can, retrospectively, be 'written into' established traditions of mainstream solo and chamber music. Both 'La Trompette Retrouvée' and 'Trumpet Masque' in 2007 and 2008 were hailed in the press, the latter receiving High Fidelity's 'Recording of the Year' with Metro describing it as 'extraordinary playing, switching between fizzy fireworks and tender pathos with ease'. A disc of 'Romantic' sonatas is planned for early 2010.
Jonathan Freeman-Attwood's career also extends to recording producer for many independent labels. Several of his productions have won major awards, including four Gramophone Awards for Ockeghem's Requiem with the Clerk's Group (ASV), Purcell's Fantazias (Simax) and Gibbons' six-part Fantasias (AVIE) with Phantasm as well as Vivaldi's 'La Stravaganza' Concertos with the violinist Rachel Podger and L'Arte di Suonatore (Channel Classics). As well as concertos with Podger and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, he has recorded all Bach's unaccompanied violin music and the accompanied sonatas with Trevor Pinnock (Channel Classics), the large-scale works of Byrd, Lawes and Jenkins with Phantasm, chamber recordings with Podger, Pinnock and Jonathan Manson, Tallis and Byrd with The Cardinall's Music (Hyperion) and miscellaneous discs for Naxos, Chandos and BIS.
He continues to be active as a critic, lecturer and contributor to many journals, as well as for The New Grove (2nd edition) and he broadcasts regularly for BBC Radio 3. He is an established authority on Bach interpretation, particularly as it challenges and refocuses historical perspectives on 'performance practices' and - in more pedagogical contexts - how recordings of the past can influence current priorities and tastes.
In July 2008, Professor Jonathan Freeman-Attwood became the 14th Principal of the Academy since it was founded in 1822.
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