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 (RCMIOS) where he was the recipient of the Eric Joseph Shilling Prize. He was awarded the London Bach Society Singer’s Prize in 2013 and is currently a Samling Artist.
Recent opera roles include Prologue The Turn of the Screw for Opera Holland Park, Telemaco for Iford Arts under Christian Curnyn, Paulino The Secret Marriage for British Youth Opera (for which he won the Dame Hilda Bracket award from Sadler’s Wells), Ruggiero in Caccini’s La Liberazione di Ruggierio for the Brighton Early Music Festival, Tamino Die Zauberflöte, the title role in Albert Herring, Matthew in the world premiere of Mark Simpson’s Pleasure for Opera North, Aldeburgh and The Royal Opera, Acis Acis and Galatea for Handel House with La Nuova Musica under Laurence Cummings, and Aquilio in J.C. Bach’s Adriano in Siria for the Classical Opera Company.
Current and future engagements include Haydn’s Paukenmesse with Stephen Cleobury, the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Mozart’s Requiem for The Three Choirs Festival with Simon Halsey and the Philharmonia Orchestra, Coridon Acis and Galatea with John Butt and the Dunedin Consort, Telemaco The Return of Ulysses and Mercurio La Calisto, both for English Touring Opera, Britten’s Les Illuminations and Serenade with L’Orchestre de Chambre de Paris with Adrien Perruchon, Bach’s St John Passion with both the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under John Butt (arias) and Polyphony and the OAE under Stephen Layton (Evangelist), Henry Crawford Mansfield Park for The Grange Festival, and the role of Lysander A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the Aldeburgh Festival.
This biography is for information only and should not be reproduced.
Bach St John Passion, English Touring Opera
Wiltshire Music Centre, Bradford on Avon (October 2016)
Of the young voices among the soloists – all required to move around the stage a good deal – tenor Nick Pritchard was the most impressive: the clarity of words, his full but sweet tone, together with the ability to inject an urgency into his sound without undue effort, stood out.
Rian Evans, The Guardian
Monteverdi Ulysses’ Homecoming (Telemachus)
English Touring Opera, Hackney Empire (October 2016)
But there are also outstanding performances from… Nick Pritchard’s forthright, attractive Telemachus.
Tim Ashley, The Guardian
Fine performance too from Nick Pritchard as the loyal son Telemachus.
Richard Morrison, The Times
The male voice trio with…Telemachus (Nick Pritchard) is sublime.
Michael Church, The Independent
The tenor Nick Pritchard was in glorious voice as their son Telemaco.
Peter Reed, Opera Magazine
Nick Pritchard’s outstanding Telemachus.
Alexandra Coghlan, The Spectator
Nick Pritchard is vital as his son Telemachus.
George Hall, The Stage
Pritchard exhibits tremendous stamina and focus.
Claire Seymour, Opera Today
As Telemachus, Nick Pritchard revealed fearless nobility, singing with strength and stamina.
Mark Ronan, markronan.com
Mark Simpson Pleasure (Matthew)
Opera North and on tour (May 2016)
Pritchard and Timothy Nelson are both affecting as two lost souls adrift in this Hedonistic Hades.
Alfred Hickling, The Guardian
Tenor Nick Pritchard as Matthew, vulnerable and hungry for love…brought ardour and, for want of a better word, muscularity.
Fiona Maddocks, The Observer
The four soloists are all very good…Timothy Nelson and Nick Pritchard as the two muddled young men in the case.
Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph
The engaging tenor of Nick Pritchard.
Martin Dreyer, York Press
Britten St Nicolas
London Choral Sinfonia, St John's, Smith Square (December 2015)
I was certainly impressed by the soloist Nick Pritchard, who is one of the hot new tenors on the circuit and sang the title role with the ardour I recall from its finest exponent , the late Philip Langridge.
Michael White, Catholic Herald
La Liberazione di Ruggerio dall’Isola d’Alcina
Brighton Early Music Festival, The Old Market (November 2015)
Pritchard and Devin look and sound gorgeous.
Tim Ashley, The Guardian
King Arthur, Early Opera Company
Wigmore Hall (February 2015)
Six singers shared out the songs and doubled as chorus… Nick Pritchard, lofty and more serious…The whole thing was a classy entertainment, and hugely enjoyable.
Tim Ashley, The Guardian
The Secret Marriage
British Youth Opera (September 2013)
Tenor Nick Pritchard finds the perfect pace and tone-colour for his ardent recitatives.
Michael Church, The Independent
Everyone’s singing is a delight. Nick Pritchard and Alice Rose Privett are wonderfully tender and believable lovers.
Charlotte Valori, Bachtrack
Albert Herring
Royal College of Music International Opera School (July 2015)
At the heart of the drama is Nick Pritchard’s Albert, a performance that plays the long game. Sweetly timid (aided by a splendid pink pinny) and vocally restrained throughout Act I, Pritchard displays tremendous control, holding plenty back for his drunken Act II release. His is a lovely English tenor with a core of muscularity that gives promise of a Clayton-esque future, and beautifully showcased here in Britten’s writing. Dramatically too this Albert is nicely judged, displaying no obvious camp beyond a brief exchange of glances with the leather-jacketed extra from West Side Story who haunts the shop.
Alexandra Coghlan, The Arts Desk
Nick Pritchard’s Albert easily presided over the whole evening, his authority, pace and characterisation never in doubt. His drunken soliloquy revealed how skilfully he’d kept us waiting for him to take control, and his warm, lithe tenor did the rest in charm, melancholy and intensity. In its restrained way, it was a knock-out performance, and those don’t come around so often.
Peter Reed, Classical Source
Nick Pritchard’s Opera Repertoire
| Britten | Albert Herring (title) |
|---|---|
| Francesca Caccini | La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola di Alcina (Ruggiero) |
| Cimorosa | The Secret Marriage (Paulino) |
| Handel | Acis and Galatea (Acis) |
| Monteverdi | L’incorazione di Poppea (L’incorazione di Poppea) |
| Mozart | Così fan tutte (Ferrando) |
| Ravel | L’heure Espagnole (Torquemada) |
Nick Pritchard’s Concert Repertoire
| Bach | B Minor Mass |
|---|---|
| Beethoven | Mass in C |
| Britten | Spring Symphony |
| Charpentier | Messe de Minuit |
| Handel | Israel in Egypt |
| Haydn | Nelson Mass |
| Jackson | The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ |
| Mendelssohn | Elijah |
| Monteverdi | Vespers of 1610 |
| Mozart | Mass in C minor |
| Purcell | King Arthur |
| Rossini | Petite Messe Solenelle |
