Jim Pritchard

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I have generally – before Mahler (& Bruckner) non-vocal symphonies – been into voice and opera productions … and am of the generation who was young when the Reginald Goodall Ring was first on at the London Coliseum. Alberto Remedios was a great friend and I knew Goodall and all that lot … Rita Hunter etc. I once organised a dinner at which Dame Eva Turner and Goodall were present together! I was ‘in charge’ of The Wagner Society in their ‘golden years’ and the Bayreuth Bursary under my guidance gave awards to Bryn Terfel (not difficult that!) – he sang and was interviewed by me in Holborn in those days for an audience of only about 40!!, others we found were D’Arcy Bleiker (who was in the Edinburgh Festival Tristan concert I reviewed for this website), Liane Keegan, Elaine McKrill and Christine Rice. I interviewed many of the great musical personalities in my time, Gwyneth Jones, John Tomlinson, Anne Evans, Alan Titus, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Deborah Polaski, Graham Clark, Wolfgang Wagner, Alberto and Rita, among others. I was chair of The Wagner Society for over 10 years and edited Wagner News for some 100plus issues … can’t remember how many!

Anyway that was then … this is now! In 2001 I was co-founder of the modern Gustav Mahler Society UK (www.mahlersociety.org). I edit The Wayfarer magazine now for the GMS UK for which I am the chair. The Society’s activities include regular meetings, lectures, discussions, study days, video presentations, concerts and masterclasses held in Central London with a new series of free public events beginning at the Barbican Library in 2006.

I have appeared on Newsnight and am well-known to audiences and recorded music societies throughout the UK for interview events or (hopefully?) entertaining talks on Wagner’s early and later life or the Ring Cycle and these are available once again after a break of several years, as well as, new talks on Gustav Mahler and his songs and symphonies or Alma Mahler’s life.