The Royal Academy of Music is an extraordinary place with extraordinary people – for 200 years, it has been training and inspiring successive generations of music makers and leaders from all over the world. As we enter our third century, we are more confident than ever in our ability to shape the future of music by discovering and supporting talent wherever it exists, and by attracting the exceptional teachers and mentors who spark this talent. 

Between 2009 and 2018, the Royal Academy of Music hosted forty interviews with a group of eminent international musical figures. Sixteen of these interviews form part of ‘The Principal’s Interview’ series, led by the Academy’s Principal, Jonathan Freeman-Attwood, whilst the bulk of the remaining interviews were hosted by Raymond Holden. Each interview offers insights into the changing professional and artistic worlds of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, as well as serving as a valuable collection of exceptional life stories. 

Sir Neville Marriner ∙ Sir Charles Mackerras ∙ Sir Colin Davis ∙ Christoph von Dohnányi ∙ Nikolaus Harnoncourt ∙ Sir John Eliot Gardiner ∙ Trevor Pinnock ∙ Sir Mark Elder ∙ Dame Jane Glover ∙ Oliver Knussen ∙ Semyon Bychkov ∙ Masaaki Suzuki ∙ Sian Edwards ∙ Vladimir Jurowski ∙ Edward Gardner ∙ Dame Janet Baker ∙ Dame Gwyneth Jones ∙ Yvonne Minton ∙ Dame Anne Evans ∙ Sheila Armstrong ∙ Ryland Davies and Dennis O’Neill ∙ Sarah Walker ∙ Dame Kiri Te Kanawa ∙ Dame Felicity Lott ∙ Dame Ann Murray ∙ Yvonne Kenny ∙ Paul Badura-Skoda ∙ Leon Fleisher ∙ György Pauk ∙ John Williams ∙ Steven Isserlis ∙ Joanna MacGregor ∙ Maxim Vengerov ∙ James Ehnes ∙ Christopher Raeburn ∙ Sir Humphrey Burton ∙ Tony Palmer ∙ Bruno Monsaingeon ∙ Roger Wright ∙ Christian Thielemann