[1] Born into a family of musicians, Freeman grew up in Needham, Massachusetts and attended Milton Academy.
In 1972 he was named director of the Eastman School of Music (University of Rochester), a position he held for 24 years.
From the fall of 1996 through the spring of 1999 he served as president of the New England Conservatory, then as dean of the College of Fine Arts at The University of Texas at Austin till 2006.
In 2015 he retired from the Susan Menefee Ragan Regents Professorship of Fine Arts at UT Austin, where he taught courses on the history and future of music.
[3] His book, "The Crisis of Classical Music in America; Lessons from a Life in the Education of Musicians," was published in August 2014.