Alwynne Pritchard

Composer focused on exploring the relationship between musical expression and the human voice and body.

Alwynne Pritchard is a British composer, vocalist, actor and writer based in Bergen. She has appeared as an actor, vocalist and physical performer in a number of stage productions, as well as directing and developing choreography for her work. After undergraduate studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Royal Academy of Music in London, Alwynne went on to obtain a Masters in Musicology and a PhD in composition from the University of Bristol. She is an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.

In 2000, Alwynne was awarded a Visions of Norway scholarship for a two-month artist residency at the USF Verftet, Bergen (European City of Culture) and returned for an extended residency three years later. In 2006, she took up a one-year residency at the Internationales Künstlerhaus Villa Concordia in Bamberg, Bavaria, after which she lived in Berlin f or a short time. Her work Decoy, created at the Heinrich Strobel Stiftung in Freiburg in 2006 for the Donaueschingen Musiktage, was awarded the special prize given by the Foundation Ton Bruynèl, STEIM and the Foundation GAUDEAMUS. In 2018, she was awarded a Bergen kommune arbeidsstipend in support of her work and in 2019, she was nominated by Bit Teatergarasjen for the Bergens Tidende Audience Award.

Alwynne has composed for, and performed with musicians and ensembles, at venues and festivals around the globe. In 2016, she was awarded the commission to create a fanfare or ‘marker’ to celebrate the opening of Snøhetta’s building for the University of Bergen’s newly created Department of Art, Music and Design, for which she created the book of text scores, up without an insistent casting away. In May 2019, Alwynne hosted and gave a solo performance at the official opening ceremony for the Bergen International festival. Alwynne’s first portrait disc, Invisible Cities was released on the Metier label in 2002.

In 2019, Rockaby was released on Kairos, featuring works performed by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (with the composer as vocal soloist), Christian Dierstein, the Experimentalstudiodes SWR, ensemble recherche, Klaus Steffes-Holländer and the Norwegian Naval Forces Band (among others). In 2020, her recording of Vinko Globokar’s Metamorphosis (composed for her DOG/GOD I) was released on the same label, presented alongside other work by Globokar, performed by Bergen’s BIT20 ensemble. Alwynne’s work has also been released on other British, German and Norwegian labels.

Alwynne’s professional life has also included stints as a writer and presenter for BBC Radio, a composition teacher at Trinity Laban in London and as Artistic Director of both the Borealis festival and BIT20Ensemble.

http://www.alwynnepritchard.co.uk/