Cellist and viol player Jonathan Manson was born in Edinburgh and received his formative training at the International Cello Centre in the Scottish Borders, later going on to study at the Eastman School of Music in New York. A growing fascination for early music led him to Holland, where he studied viola da gamba with Wieland Kuijken. For ten years he was the principal cellist of the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, with whom he performed and recorded more than 150 Bach cantatas and, together with Yo-Yo Ma, Vivaldi’s Concerto for two cellos. Jonathan is now principal cellist of the Dunedin Consort and often appears in this role with other leading early music groups. As a concerto soloist, he has appeared at the Wigmore Hall, the Carnegie Hall and the South Bank Centre.

Jonathan is a founding member of the viol consort Phantasm, which has toured worldwide and won three Gramophone Awards, and for several years was also the cellist of the London Haydn Quartet, who completed their cycle of Haydn’s string quartets on the Hyperion label in 2023. A long-standing partnership with the harpsichordist Trevor Pinnock has led to critically acclaimed recordings of the Bach sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord, amongst many others. Jonathan has been professor for baroque cello and viola da gamba at the Royal Academy of Music since 2003, and also teaches regularly at the Royal Northern College of Music.