Jonathan Freeman-Attwood is the fourteenth Principal of the Royal Academy of Music, London, a post he has held since 2008. His commitment to education spans over thirty years, within which time he has also established himself as a recording producer, freelance trumpet player, writer and broadcaster. In the early years of his career he was awarded the Healey-Willan Memorial Scholarship at the University of Toronto, from which he graduated with First Class Honours, before embarking on research at Christ Church, Oxford. In 2001 he was conferred Professor of the University of London.

From 1991 to 1995 Freeman-Attwood served as Dean of Undergraduate Studies at the Royal Academy of Music, then spent thirteen years as its Vice-Principal and Director of Studies. For over a quarter of a century in senior posts at the Academy he has played a leading role in launching pioneering programmes and fostering major international relationships. He has been instrumental in nurturing a fifteen-year collaboration with The Juilliard School in New York, as well as curating several artistic and professional development initiatives, including the founding of the Academy’s recording label in 1997.

As a trumpet soloist Freeman-Attwood has released over ten albums, the majority of them for Linn, and they have attracted wide critical acclaim for their musical originality and effective ‘re-imagining’ of the trumpet as a chamber instrument in reconstructions of works from 1600 to the twentieth century. He is Series Editor for Resonata Music’s ‘The Re-Imagined Trumpet’ in which, amongst other pieces from his catalogue, newly configured sonatas by Schumann, Mendelssohn and Fauré have been published.

Freeman-Attwood has produced over 250 commercial recordings for many of the world’s most prestigious independent labels. His productions have won major awards, including several Diapasons d’or, Gramophone Awards and numerous nominations over the last twenty years with artists and ensembles including Rachel Podger, The Cardinall’s Musick, Trevor Pinnock, Phantasm, I Fagiolini, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and various leading cathedral choirs, including St Paul’s Cathedral and Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford.

As an educator and scholar Freeman-Attwood continues to be active as a lecturer, critic and contributor to journals (including Gramophone since 1992) and books including The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (second edition) and The Cambridge Companion to Recorded Music, as well as broadcasting regularly on BBC Radio 3. He is an established authority on Bach interpretation.

Freeman-Attwood is a trustee of Christ Church Cathedral Oxford Music, the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM), the Countess of Munster Trust, the British Library’s SAGA Trust and Garsington Opera (where he is Chair of the Artistic Advisory Committee). He is also on the Advisory Board of the Academy of Ancient Music, Patron of London Youth Choirs and he holds fellowships at the Royal College and Royal Northern College of Music as well as King’s College London and Toyko University of the Arts, Geidai. Freeman- Attwood was appointed CBE in the New Year’s Honours List in 2018.