INVISIBLE

INVISIBLE CITIES

Short film to Alvynne Pritchard´s Invisible Cities for solo piano, performed by Nicolas Hodges

Based on video footage by Ulrich Bohnefeld recorded in London 2006

JÖRG STAEGER / PROJECTS / INVISIBLE CITIES / <

Alwynne Pritchard was born in Glasgow in 1968. Encouraged by her father, the composer Gwyn Pritchard, she began composing as a teenager and went on to study composition with Robert Saxton at the Guildhall School of Music, and later with Justin Connolly and Michael Finnissy at the Royal Academy of Music where she was awarded many prizes for her work. She has since been distinguished by critics for her "strong, spare language" and "restrained eloquence".

Over the past ten years, Alwynne's music has been performed by leading British players and ensembles including the BBC Symphony Orchestra , the Arditti String Quartet , Apartment House , the Bournemouth Sinfonietta , Gemini, Ixion, John Kenny, London Sinfonietta, Lontano, Darragh Morgan, Sarah Nicholls, Ian Pace, Reservoir, 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 Ireland, America, Europe and Scandanavia, and has often been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and 4, as well as abroad. In the summer of 2000, Alwynne was awarded a Visions of Norway scholarship for a two-month artist's residency at the Kulturhuset, Bergen and was later offered another, extended residency from June to September 2003.

A CD of Alwynne's music, recorded by the ensemble Topologies has recently been released on the Metier label, catalogue number CD 92040 and Nicolas Hodges' performance of her Invisible Cities (solo piano) is also included on the Darmstadt 2000 disc. Geometry of Pain I has been recorded for CD and released on the WDR label.

Last year, Alwynne's orchestral work Critical Mass was given its World Premiere by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and was also broadcast on BBC Radio 3's Hear & Now and Homecoming , a 20-minute work for five amplified voices and electronics, was performed at the Midnight Sun Music Festival on the Island of Reinoya in Norway. Recent broadcasts include the Duke Quartet's performance of Nocturnal at the opening night this year's Cheltenham International Music Festival. Alwynne has recently completed Map of the Moon, a piano concerto commissioned by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, to be premiered with the pianist Nicolas Hodges later this year and Decoy for ensemble and electronics, commissioned by South West German Radio, to be given its first performance by Ensemble Recherche at the Donaueschingen Musiktage in Germany in October 2004. Current projects include a new work for the Dutch ensemble de ereprijs with the Norwegain vocalist Maja Ratke for performance in November.

Alwynne has a PhD from the University of Bristol. She is a regular presenter on BBC Radio 3's Hear and Now and teaches composition at Trinity College of Music, London.