Deborah Pritchard facts for kids
Deborah Pritchard is a British composer. She is famous for creating music for concerts. Her unique way of composing is influenced by something called synaesthesia. This means she experiences sounds as colors. She also creates music inspired by visual artists like Maggi Hambling, Hughie O'Donoghue, and Marc Chagall.
Deborah Pritchard also paints her music. She makes visual pictures and maps of her musical ideas. In 2015, the London Symphony Orchestra performed her big orchestral piece, The Angel Standing in the Sun. Her violin concerto, Calandra, was first played by Jennifer Pike and the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 2022. Also in 2022, her solo cello piece Radiance was premiered by Natalie Clein. This piece was inspired by Marc Chagall's The Peace Window at the United Nations. In 2017, she won a British Composer Award for her solo violin piece, Inside Colour.
Contents
Deborah Pritchard's Education Journey
Deborah Pritchard studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She earned a degree and a diploma there. She focused on both composing and playing the double bass. Later, she completed a Master's degree in composition. This was at the Royal Academy of Music with Simon Bainbridge. She also held a special position there called Manson Fellow.
She then earned her DPhil degree from Worcester College, Oxford. Her teacher there was Robert Saxton. Today, she is an Associate Member of the Faculty of Music at Oxford. In 2019, she became an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music. From 2022 to 2023, she was a visiting research fellow at Keble College, Oxford.
Deborah Pritchard's Music Career
Deborah Pritchard's music first gained attention in 2001. Her piece Chanctonbury Ring was included on an album called "The Hoxton Thirteen". This album was released by NMC Recordings. Since then, her music has been released by many record labels. These include Signum Records, Nimbus, Linn Records, BIS Records, Hyperion Records, and Orchid Classics.
Her music has been performed and broadcast all over the world. Many famous groups have played her works. These include the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra. Other groups are the London Sinfonietta and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. The Royal Northern Sinfonia and Philharmonia Orchestra have also performed her music.
Recent works include Kandinsky Songs for choir and orchestra. This piece was first performed in Beijing, China, in 2024. Her song Everyone Sang was premiered at the Wigmore Hall in 2023. Chagall's Light for solo violin and orchestra was also premiered in 2023. This piece was inspired by the Marc Chagall windows at All Saints Church, Tudeley.
She was a composer in residence at the 2016 Lichfield Festival. She also held this role at the 2022 Purbeck International Chamber Music Festival. At this festival, Natalie Clein premiered her new work for solo cello.
Understanding Synaesthesia in Music
Deborah Pritchard experiences synaesthesia. This means she sees colors, light, and darkness when she hears sounds. She describes it like this: "Since I was a child, I noticed some harmonies felt warm, while others seemed cold. The link between colors and intervals felt so natural to me." She hopes to show beauty to listeners by using color, light, and darkness in her music.
Pritchard often paints pictures of her musical works. These are called visualisations. The London Sinfonietta also asked her to paint "music maps" of other composers' works. These maps were included in concert programs. Her visualisations were shown at the Royal Academy of Music's "Amazing Women of the Academy" exhibition. In 2020, she created a graphic score called Colour Circle. This was for the London Sinfonietta's "Postcard Pieces" project. It was inspired by Wassily Kandinsky's book Concerning the Spiritual in Art.
Music Inspired by Visual Art
Deborah Pritchard has written several pieces inspired by Marc Chagall. One is Radiance for solo cello. This piece was inspired by The Peace Window at the United Nations. It was first performed by Natalie Clein in 2022. Another piece is Chagall's Light for solo violin and orchestra. This was inspired by the windows at All Saints Church, Tudeley. It was premiered in 2023.
She has also created music inspired by the artist Maggi Hambling. They worked together in Hambling's studio in Suffolk. One of these pieces was the violin concerto Wall of Water (2014). This was first performed during the Frieze Art Fair in London. Pictures of Hambling's seascape paintings, also called Wall of Water, were shown during the performance.
Other pieces inspired by Hambling's art include Edge. This is a double concerto for violin, harp, and string orchestra. It was inspired by Hambling's paintings about global warming. It was premiered in 2017. She also wrote March 2020 for solo violin. This piece was created during lockdown, inspired by Hambling's painting of the same name.
Pritchard has also been inspired by other artists. These include Hughie O'Donoghue, George Shaw, Yinka Shonibare, Steinunn Thorarinsdottir, J.M.W. Turner, and James Turrell.
Selected Musical Works
- Light (2023) for solo violin
- Calandra (2022) for solo violin and string orchestra
- The Light of the World (2022) for solo violin and choir
- Couleurs Celeste (2022) for violin and cello
- The World song cycle (2022) for soprano and piano
- Illumination (2022) for string orchestra
- Peace (2021) for soprano and string quartet
- March 2020 (2020) for solo violin, inspired by a painting by Maggi Hambling
- Green Renewed (2020) for solo cello
- Colour Circle (2020) graphic score for any instrument
- Trophies of Peace (2020) for choir, inspired by Trophies by Steinunn Thorarinsdottir
- New College Service - Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis (2020) for choir
- The Heavens Declare (2019) for choir
- For Mother Earth (revised 2019) for string orchestra
- River Above (2018) for solo saxophone
- Storm Song (2017) for soprano, piano and cello
- Edge (2017) for violin, harp and string orchestra, inspired by paintings by Maggi Hambling
- Inside Colour (2016) for solo violin
- Seven Halts on the Somme (2016) for trumpet, harp and string orchestra, inspired by paintings by Hughie O'Donoghue
- From Night (2015) for solo cello
- Of The Heart (2015) for string orchestra
- The Angel Standing in the Sun (2015) for orchestra, inspired by artwork by J.M.W. Turner
- Benedicite (2014) for choir and trumpet
- I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes Unto The Hills (2014) for choir
- Wall of Water (2014) for violin and string orchestra
- Skyspace (2012) for solo piccolo trumpet and string orchestra, inspired by artwork by James Turrell.
- Lord's Prayer (2009) for choir
- Chanctonbury Ring (2000) for Pierrot Ensemble
- Four Short Movements (2000) for cello and piano
