Born in Glasgow in 1968, Alwynne Pritchard began having composition lessons as a teenager with her father Gwyn Pritchard. She went on to study with Robert Saxton at the Guildhall School of Music, and later with Melanie Daiken, Justin Connolly and Michael Finnissy at the Royal Academy of Music, where she was awarded many prizes for her work. During this time she also studied voice with the mezzo-soprano Linda Hirst. In 1997, Alwynne was awarded a research scholarship by the University of Bristol and in 2003 received a PhD in composition.
Over the last decade and a half, Alwynne’s music has been performed by leading players and ensembles throughout Europe and America, including the Arditti String Quartet, Apartment House, Asamisimasa, Athelas Ensemble, BBC and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestras, Bournemouth Sinfonietta, Christian Dierstein, The Duke String Quartet, de ereprijs, ensemble recherche, Gemini, Nicolas Hodges, Ixion, Kaida, John Kenny, Carin Levine, London Sinfonietta, Lontano, Loré Lixenberg, Darragh Morgan, New Music Players, Nieuw Ensemble, Ian Pace, Jonathan Powell,Maja Ratkje, Parkinson Saunders, Pow Ensemble, Reservoir, Elena Riu, Jarle Rotevatn, Sarah Nicolls and the Schubert and Uroboros Ensembles.
As well as being regularly heard in London and around the country, Alwynne’s music has also received performances in America, Belgium, Finland, Germany, Holland, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Poland and Norway, and has often been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and 4.
In 2005, Alwynne formed the Bergen/London-based improvisation quintet FAT BATTERY, and has also performed as a vocalist with computer programmer Thorolf Thuestad and flautist Rowland Sutherland in the trio Myrtle; with Berlin-based hardware electronics instrument builder/improviser Guido Hennebohl in the duo Ding Dong; with Austrian pianist Judith Unterpertinger as unterPritperTingerchard, and with the visual artist Claire Zakiewicz.
Alwynne is also a freelance writer and presenter for BBC Radio 3 including Music in Our Time, Midnight Oil, Music Matters, Hear and Now and Discovering Music.
She is managed by Maestro Arts and her music is published by Verlag Neue Musik, Berlin.