Edward Blakeman is Head of Music at BBC Radio 3, responsible for commissioning and overseeing a wide range of classical, jazz and world music broadcasts and associated programming. He previously produced and presented music features, documentaries, live relays and recordings of orchestral concerts and operas for Radio 3, including the prize-winning Sounding the Century project, a three-year major retrospective of 20th century music. He was also involved for many years in the artistic planning and direction of the BBC Proms.
Before joining the BBC, he was Head of the Wind Department at the London College of Music and a freelance flute player, lecturer and broadcaster. He studied at the Universities of Lancaster and Birmingham and at the Royal Northern College of Music where he held a research fellowship. Scholarships from the Worshipful Company of Musicians, the British Council and the French CNRS took him to Paris to research his particular interest in French flute playing styles and repertoire from the Baroque to the present day and to complete a doctoral thesis on the flute player and conductor of the Paris Opera, Paul Taffanel.
He is the editor of various music editions and author of several books, including Taffanel – Genius of the Flute (Oxford University Press) and The Faber Pocket Guide to Handel. He is currently editing The Cambridge Companion to the Flute. He is a member of the Council of the Royal Philharmonic Society.