Bach Singers Prize

Monday 11 November 2013

 

RCM tenor Nick Pritchard has won First Prize in the fourth London Bach Society Bach Singers Prize.

The final of the competition’s three rounds took place at St George’s, Hanover Square, on Friday 8 November. The judging panel – made up of early music experts Ian Partridge, Peter Harvey, Anthony Robson and Margaret Cable – awarded Nick the First Prize of £2000 following his performance of arias and recitatives from Bach's works, including his St Matthew Passion and Easter Oratorio, accompanied by early music group the Steinitz Bach Players.

Nick said that one reason he was attracted to the competition was its emphasis on inventive programming, as he explains: “there's just so much vocal repertoire by Bach, and it's not often you can say this, but it's all just fantastic music. So despite it being technically very difficult, really it's a gift for singers. It was also a bit of a mission of mine to prove that Bach can be sung it a full-bodied, un-mannered way, and to quell any thoughts that early music has to be sung in a particular way. It's some of the most human music out there, and should be performed as such.”

Nick is currently studying with Russell Smythe and Christopher Glynn at the RCM, where he is a Mason Scholar and a recipient of an Ian Evans Lombe Award. He is further supported by The Musicians Benevolent Fund and The Countess of Munster Trust.

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