Biography

“[…] in the dramatic Toccata, Bougt impressed with great dexterity, quick shifts and sharp emotional flings.” – Uppsala Nya Tidning

Award winning Swedish guitarist and theorbist Jonatan Bougt is a graduate of the Royal College of Music (RCM), London, where he studied with Jakob Lindberg, Carlos Bonell and Chris Stell as an RCM Scholar supported by the Musician’s Company Lambert Studentship. He completed his Master of Historical Performance degree with Distinction in 2019 and holds a First Class Bachelor of Music (Honours) degree, graduating in 2017. During his studies, he was the 1st Prize winner of the RCM Guitar Prize (2017) and the RCM Historical Performance Competition (2019), receiving The Century Fund Prize and The Richard III Prize. In 2021, Jonatan was awarded the 1st Prize in the NORDEM 2020 EAR-ly competition, for his “graceful playing, stage presence that leads the listener to the music” and for his “elegant and natural way of playing as well as understanding of style and musical rhetoric”. Jonatan has been selected as a Young Artist on the ‘Britten Pears Young Artist Programme’ (2018), ‘BREMF Live!’ (2018/19) and ‘Handel House Talent’ (2019-21). Other noteworthy awards include the 1st Prize in the Swedish Guitar & Lute Society’s Jörgen Rörby Competition (2014) and the 1st Prize in the Uppsala International Guitar Festival’s Young Talents Competition (2013).

Jonatan has performed in venues such as the Royal Festival Hall, Queen’s Gallery, Shakespeare Globe, Hampton Court Palace, St John’s Smith Square, Kings Place, Snape Maltings Concert Hall (UK), Stockholm Concert Hall and Uppsala Konsert&Kongress Concert Hall (Sweden), Große Universitätsaula Salzburg (Austria) and Centro Cultural Justicia Federal, (Brazil). In 2016, Jonatan performed the UK premiere of Chaya Czernowin’s ‘White Wind Waiting’ with the RCM Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Johannes Harneit.

In 2012, he was awarded a scholarship by the City of Stockholm and the Music Conservatoire of Espirito Santo (FAMES) to give recitals with Bougt & Bergek Duo during the XIX Winter Music Festival of Domingos Martins and in Centro Cultural Justicia Federal, Rio de Janeiro. It also led to live performances on Brazilian TV-Gazeta. Jonatan regularly works as a chamber musician and in 2016, his guitar and piano duo with Irena Radić won 2nd Prize in the Chamber Music Competition at the Twents Guitar Festival, Netherlands and the group Dramma Per Musica have performed in major festivals around the UK and Europe as well as live on BBC Radio 3. Jonatan’s playing can be heard on Fair Oriana’s new album ‘Two Voices’ as well as Ensemble La Notte’s ‘La Folia’, both released this year. 2022 will see the release of Ensemble Noxwode’s CD featuring violin sonatas by Marco Uccellini.

Prior to coming to London, Jonatan studied with Bo Hansson at Södra Latin Gymnasium’s Professional Musician Programme. His studies there were supported by the Royal Academy of Music in Sweden, the Swedish Guitar & Lute Society and the Grisslehamn’s Guitar Prize.  Jonatan plays on guitars by Johannes Kitselis and Lars Jönsson. His theorbo, also made by Lars Jönsson, is generously sponsored by the Helge Ax:son Johnson Foundation.

Jonatan would like to thank the following organisations and individuals for their generous support throughout his career and studies: The Musicians’ Company, Margareta Rörby and the Jörgen Rörby Scholarship, the Swedish Guitar & Lute Society, the Grisslehamn’s Guitar Prize, Edilson Barboza and FAMES in Brazil, Royal Academy of Music in Sweden, Sasha Levtov and the West Sussex Guitar Club, Uppfostringsfonderna, Thora Ohlsson Foundation, Helge Ax:son Johnson Foundation, Kempe-Carlgrenska Foundation, Help Musicians UK, ISM COVID19 Hardship Fund, Handel & Hendrix House Museum, NORDEM and Föreningen för Tidig Musik.

Musicians’ Company Award: RCM Lambert Scholarship 2017

Page Updated: Feb 2022