Emil Jonason was born in 1986 and raised in Värmdö, outside Stockholm. He began playing the clarinet at the local music school when he was 10 years old "the instrument with the shortest waiting list". With a father who was an amateur jazz clarinetist, he listened early on to world-renowned names like Benny Goodman, Sidney Bechet, Kenny Davern and especially the legendary Artie Shaw.
After a few years, he joined the music school's jazz ensemble and soon learned to improvise while also beginning to discover classical music. During his high school years at the Södra Latins yrkesmusikerlinje, he played in both symphony orchestra, big band, chamber music and in jazz ensembles. At the same time, he toured Sweden, Poland, and the Czech Republic with various klezmer/Balkan groups.
At the age of 17, he was admitted to the Kungliga Musikhögskolan (Royal College of Music) in Stockholm, where he studied under Hermann Stefánsson, Martin Fröst, Kjell-Inge Stevensson and Yehuda Gilad. He won the Soloist Competition in Helsingborg when he was 21, performed Nielsen's clarinet concerto with the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, and played John Corigliano's clarinet concerto with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra for his diploma concert in 2008.
In the 2009/10 season, he was appointed a Rising Star by the European Concert Hall Organization, leading to invitations from major venues in Europe such as the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Vienna Musikverein, Cité de la Musique in Paris, Hamburg Laeiszhalle, L'Auditori in Barcelona, and more. At the same time, he toured with pianist Peter Friis Johansson, a friend since high school, and they have performed concerts together hundreds of times over the years.
At the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in 2012, Emil performed as a soloist on live TV worldwide, and the following year, he was invited by conductor Marin Alsop to the prestigious Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in the USA. That same autumn, he premiered Christian Lindberg's clarinet concerto "Herr Grönstedt's Strange Dreams" with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, a work Emil has since performed throughout Sweden, Germany, the UK, Finland, Latvia, and also recorded for BIS Records.
Emil has been described in Swedish, European, and American press as "the young Malmsteen of the clarinet," that he "has a rock star attitude," "the pinnacle of what one can get out of a clarinet," and as "a magical space journey from beginning to end." He has performed as a soloist with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Musica Vitae, Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra, Weimar Staatskapelle, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra in the USA, Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen, and many more in Sweden and internationally.
In 2019, Emil won the international Kaleidoscope International Vocal and Instrumental Competition in Los Angeles, USA. Out of over 1,600 applicants from around the world, Emil was selected to perform Emmy Lindström's clarinet concerto in the final round, subsequently winning the competition. He was the only clarinetist, and Emmy's concerto was the only modern music work chosen for the final.
Emil also works as a clarinet teacher at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and at the School of Music and Opera at Mälardalen University in Västernorrland.
