Nick Pritchard
Tenor
Born in West Sussex, Nick Pritchard read music as a choral scholar at New College, Oxford and studied with Russell Smythe at the Royal College of Music International Opera School. He was an inaugural member of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment's (OAE) 'Rising Stars' scheme (2017-19) and is a SamLing artist. In 2017, he won the Whatsonstage Opera Poll award for Breakthrough Artist in UK Opera.
Described as a 'Masterly Evangelist' in The Guardian, he has sung the role in Bach's St John and Matthew Passions around the world, including with The Instruments of Time and Truth, the Orchestra of the Age ofEnlightenment, the Monteverdi Choir, and with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra.
On the concert platform he has performed with Ensemble Pygmalion, Concerto Köln, Les Talens Lyriques, Les Violons du Roy, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, English Concert, Early Opera Company, Philharmonia Orchestra, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Gabrieli Consort, Britten Sinfonia, the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra, Early Opera Company, St Paul Chamber Orchestra, La Nuova Musica at the BBC Proms, and L'Orchestre de Chambre de Paris (Britten's Les Illuminations and Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings).
He has worked under conductors including Edward Higginbottom, David Bates, Laurence Cummings, Harry Bicket, John Butt, Jonathan Cohen, Christian Curnyn, Maxim Emelyanychev, Adam Fischer, Ryan Wigglesworth, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Emmanuelle Harm, Simon Halsey, Raphaél Pichon, Christophe Rousset, David Parry and Sir Andräs Schiff.
Operatic roles include Oronte Alcjna in a new Tim Albery production for Opera North, Lysander A Midsummer Night's Dream as part of the Aldeburgh Festival's 70th anniversary, Tamino Die Zauberflöte for Glyndebourne on Tour and for Irish National Opera and Peter Whelan, Prologue The Turn of the Screw and Ferrando Cosi fan tutte for Opera Holland Park, Amphinomus The Return of Ulysses for the Royal Opera House, Purcell's The Indian Queen for the Opéra de Lille, Henry Crawford Mansfield Park, Fairfax The Yeomen of the Guard for The Grange Festival, Acis Acis and Galatea as part of the London Handel Festival, Telemaco The Return of Ulysses and Mercurio La Calisto, both for English Touring Opera, Albert in Albert Herring for RCMIOS, John/Ange13 Written on Skin, and Paulino The Secret Marriage for British Youth Opera (for which he won the Dame Hilda Bracket award from Sadler's Wells).
On the recital platform he has performed Schubert's Die Schöne Müllerin with Gary Matthewman at the Elgar Room in The Royal Albert Hall, Britten's Winter Words with Sholto Kynoch for the Oxford Lieder Festival and at Leeds Lieder with Ian Tindale, An die Ferne Geliebte with Christopher Glynn at the Two Moors Festival, and a Schubert recital with Graham Johnson at Wigmore Hall. He also appears on a disc titled Decades — a Century of Song (volume 4) for the Vivat Label, performing songs by César Franck, accompanied by Malcolm Martineau.
A regular performer of New Music, he has also given several World Premieres, including creating the role of Matthew in Mark Simpson's opera Pleasure (Opera North, Aldeburgh and The Royal Opera House), Through these Pale Cold Days, a song cycle for Tenor, Viola and Piano written by Ian Venables for the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, Sleepsinging by Cassandra Miller (with David Bates and La Nuova Music at Wigmore Hall), Daniel Kidane's Songs of Illumination (with Ian Tindale at the Leeds Lieder Festival), Gabriel Jackson's Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ (with The Choir of Merton College, Oxford and Benjamin Nicholas) and Bob Chilcott's Christmas Oratorio (The Three Choirs Festival and Adrian Partington).
Future highlights include the title role in Candide at Blackheath Halls, a return to Les Talens Lyriques as Oronte in Alcina, The Indian Queen under Emmanuelle Harm at Théåtre de Caen, Opera VLaandern and Grand Theatre Luxembourg, Handel's Il Trionfo del Tempo with the Academy of Ancient Music, performances at Oxford Lieder and Wigmore Hall, and concerts with the OAE, Antwerp Symphony and City of London Sinfonia, performing Britten's Nocturne.
