Alwynne Pritchard - Biography

Biography

Alwynne Pritchard was born in Glasgow in 1968 and as a teenager began composition lessons with her father, Gwyn Pritchard. Pritchard studied with Robert Saxton at the Guildhall School of Music, and later with Melanie Daiken, Justin Connolly and Michael Finnissy at the Royal Academy of Music, and in 1997 was awarded a research scholarship by the University of Bristol and in 2003 received a PhD in composition.

Over the last decade and a half Pritchard's music has been performed by leading players and ensembles throughout Europe and America, including the Arditti String Quartet, Apartment House, The Bournemouth Sinfonietta, Christian Dierstein, The Duke String Quartet, de ereprijs (Holland), ensemble recherche (Germany), Gemini, Nicolas Hodges, Ixion, Kaida (Holland), John Kenny, Carin Levine, The London Sinfonietta, Lontano, Darragh Morgan, New Music Players, Nieuw Ensemble, Ian Pace, Jonathan Powell, Maja Ratkje (Norway), Reservoir, Elena Riu, Jarle Rotevatn (Norway), Sarah Nicolls and the Schubert and Uroboros Ensembles. As well as being regularly heard in London and around the country, her music has also received performances in America, Belgium, Finland, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Italy, Poland and Norway, and has often been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and 4, as well as abroad.

In October 2005, Pritchard released Subterfuge In Vitro, an album of British Indian music, created in collaboration with the London-based Tabla player and producer Kuljit Bhamra. A CD of Pritchard's music has also been released by the Métier label.

In 2005 she formed the Bergen/London-based improvisation quintet FAT BATTERY, and has also performed as a vocalist with computer programmer Thorolf Thuestad and flautist Rowland Sutherland in the trio Myrtle; with Berlin-based hardware electronics instrument builder/improviser Guido Henneböhl in the duo Ding Dong; with Austrian pianist Judith Unterpertinger as unterPritperTingerchard; and with the visual artist Claire Zakiewicz in Ear to Eye.

From 2001 until 2008 Pritchard taught composition at Trinity College of Music in London, where she still holds a visiting post. She has presented many contemporary music programmes for BBC Radio 3, including Music in Our Time, Midnight Oil, Music Matters, Hear and Now and Discovering Music.

In 2008 Alwynne Pritchard became the Festival Director of the Borealis Contemporary Music Festival in Bergen, Norway, where she now resides.