Amelia Freedman, CBE, FRAM
21 November 1940 – 28 July 2025
It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Amelia Freedman, the much-acclaimed
artistic director of Bath Mozartfest for more than thirty years and Bath Bachfest since its inception.
Amelia founded the Nash Ensemble in 1964 whilst a student at the Royal Academy of Music.
Initially its clarinettist, she nurtured the group tirelessly as its artistic director over the next six
decades, earning it an international reputation for the quality of its musicians and performances.
The Nash Ensemble is a firm favourite with Bath audiences and features in every Mozartfest.
Combined with her roles as head of classical music at the South Bank Centre and artistic director
of the Bath International Festival, then Bath Mozartfest and Bachfest, she and her ensemble
occupied a unique position at the heart of British classical music. Critical tributes have included
descriptions of the Nash as ‘chamber music royalty’; ‘the yardstick by which other British chamber
groups are measured’; its work as ‘chamber music beyond compare’.
Amelia had an extraordinary gift for creative programming that was appealing as well as
broadening musical horizons. She was also an outstanding champion of new music, and by the end
of the Nash’s celebrated 60th anniversary season at Wigmore Hall the ensemble had premièred
more than 330 pieces from 25 composers.
This body of work will be Amelia’s legacy for generations to come, accompanied by an
unparalleled collection of recordings. These include many seminal performances of mainstream
classical repertoire alongside unjustly neglected composers and premieres of important
contemporary music.
Amelia Freedman received many international awards for her extraordinary service to music.
Awarded an MBE, then CBE, she was appointed Chevalier dans l’Ordre National du Mérite and
presented with a medal for services to Czech music. Last October she was granted Honorary
Membership of the Royal Philharmonic Society. Previous recipients of this award include such
esteemed figures as Liszt, Brahms and Stephen Sondheim.
Amelia dedicated her life to music, her beloved late husband Michael Miller and her three children
and grandchildren. She had one other great passion: Arsenal FC.
We will allow Amelia’s old friend the late Sir Harrison Birtwistle the last word: ‘Michael Tippett
used to say that the world was divided between those on the side of the angels and those that
were not. In the case of Amelia Freedman and the Nash Ensemble there is no question that they
stand well over the line of good and are blessed with wings of gold… without question the Nash is
a leading contender for top of the league, unique in its dedication to the old and the new’.
RIP dear Amelia
