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Sex:   Male
Location:   France
Bio:   Jonathan Dunford viol
Jonathan Dunford has become one of the principal forces in bringing solo seventeenth century music for unaccompanied bass viol back to public attention.

For over two decades he has performed to great critical acclaim in packed concert halls worldwide for a public moved and enthusiastic of his musical quality and his control of the instrument. His regular performances at the musée de la musique in Paris have convinced the many neophytes of the single and unutterable charm of the viola da gamba. He has sounded his viol in the most various places: museums, theatres, castles, mills and churches. He is invited regularly to large festivals as well as musical associations.
Besides his activity as a performer, Jonathan Dunford is an avid researcher : he has worked in libraries and archives in the whole world on unedited music for the viol. He has published editions of this music for the Cahiers du Tourdion of Strasbourg, the Société Française de Musicologie, and has written articles for various newspapers, magazines as well as the New Grove's Dictionary. He has also participated in countless conferences and radio broadcasts on the viol. In 2004 he was appointed curator of viol music at the Centre de Musique Baroque in Versailles.

The abundant discography of Jonathan Dunford, devoted primarily to unedited music for the viol for Adès - Universal Music Classics is unanimously greeted by critics with prizes such as the " diapason d’or " or the " choc de la musique ". We find him in diverse groups with a repertoire ranging from the 16th to 21st centuries : Renaissance Consort Music, Elizabethan Music with singers, baroque music as a solo player or in a small chamber group, traditional Chinese Music, or improvisations with the guitarist Fred Frith.

He performs as a solo player with his group “A 2 Violes Esgales” who he founded with the violist Sylvia Abramowicz and plays as part of the group XVIII-21 (Jean Christophe Frisch) or the . Baroque orchestra Le Parnasse Français.

He has lived in Paris since 1985 and greatly appreciates the charm of the « city of lights »