Ynyr Pritchard, viola

Ynyr Pritchard (born 2002 in Wales) is a Maltese-Welsh performer and composer. They studied at the Junior Royal Northern College of Music, the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague and attended Stanford University to study DJ and remix culture. Their tutors included Margaret Scourse, Ásdís Valdimarsdóttir and Calliope Tsoupaki. They gained a bachelor’s degree from the University of Oxford, studying composition with Martyn Harry, Jonathan Packham and Jennifer Walshe. During Ynyr Pritchard’s time there, they also studied viola privately with Stephen Upshaw. At Oxford, they was a member of the faculty’s new music ensemble — as both performer and composer — working with student composers and with Christian Mason, Elaine Mitchener, Tansy Davies and Sally Beamish. Ynyr Pritchard was also a member of Red Lipstick, a student-run new music collective founded by Thomas Bruges, and FISHGUY, a free improvisation group opening for Matmos. Ynyr Pritchard is also one third of the interdisciplinary trio How to Burp Your Baby, alongside Giuli Tritto and Zack di Lello. In 2021, Ynyr Pritchard was commissioned by Plas Bodfa and soundlands to write a complementation to Annea Lockwood’s ›Piano Drowning‹ for the ISSUE Project Rooms celebration of the composer. Ynyr Pritchard performed an expanded version of the work for the anniversary performance in 2022 and in 2025 was commissioned again to write and perform a third new work. Also in 2025, they performed as part of the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra in the summer festival. In 2023, Ynyr Pritchard was selected as a composer for the Limina Contemporary Music Festival in Salzburg to create a new work with the Ensemble Adapter and will return in 2025 to work with the Ensemble NAMES.

Ynyr Pritchard is a fellow of the GVL – the German Organisation for the Management of Neighbouring Rights.