Tenor Nick Pritchard has been singing with the Oxford Bach Soloists since 2011. Recently, he took the tenor solo in Bach’s Easter Oratorio. We asked Nick about his life in music…
Perhaps you can start by telling us a bit about your training and career to date?
I was born in Sussex, where I lived and went to school until I was 18. Then it was a Choral Scholarship at New College, Oxford followed by a year and a bit singing round the brilliant London Choral scene. I then did my Masters and Opera School at the RCM. It could have been very different though, because when I left school, I seriously considered auditioning for Musical Theatre courses. But one of my music teachers talked me out of it. Also, I realised I can’t dance, and that was that.
What other ensembles are you involved with?
I don’t really have many associations as a ‘regular member’ of any ensembles, but thankfully that means that I’ve been able to work with a relatively wide range of groups both here and abroad, many specialising in Early Music. It’s quite daunting but also quite cool to come back as a soloist to groups where I’ve sung in the choir with before, so I’m particularly looking forward to some upcoming projects with Polyphony, The OAE, The Gabrieli Consort and The English Concert.
Tell us some of the highlights of your career to date.
I love singing with groups I’ve been associated with before, so I really enjoyed singing the Evangelist in the St. John Passion for New College a couple of years ago, and in subsequent projects I’ve worked on with them since. Touring and recording the B Minor Mass with the Monteverdi Choir and The English Baroque Soloists was a fantastic experience for three main reasons:
1) most of my closest friends were on the tour with me
2) we performed in the stunning new Philarmonie in Paris
3) It was a great opportunity to get to know that piece so closely.
Apart from Bach, I have a bit of a thing for Britten, so I can’t wait to sing Lysander in a Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Aldeburgh Festival this coming summer – that’s a real highlight, to sing that piece in that place.
I also recently won an award from WhatsOnStage for ‘Breakthrough Artist in UK Opera’, which I was really thrilled with.
Nick Pritchard as Ulysses
What do you see as the value of ensembles like Oxford Bach Soloists?
Apart from the obvious thing of bringing some top class instrumentalists (so many of whom seem to live in or near Oxford, so it’s a gift!) together with some really promising young singers associated, in various forms, with the city, for me the real value of this set up is the fact that it creates a platform where lots of people are able to perform all this fantastic repertoire together, where they probably wouldn’t be able to elsewhere.
