Director of Chamber & Youth Orchestras, Staff Conductor

Wes Sarginson from NBC News Atlanta noted that Gregory Pritchard “brings a sense of humor with his baton” and K.S. Morrison from the Macon Telegraph called Pritchard “well-grounded in the art of orchestral conducting” with an interpretive sense that is “tasteful and innovative.”

Since 2010, Gregory Pritchard has served as the Music Director of the Gwinnett Symphony Chamber Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the Gwinnett Symphony Orchestra in Georgia. Prior to this current post, he served as the Music Director of the Gainesville Symphony Orchestra (GA) for five seasons. With a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Orchestral Conducting from Michigan State University, Dr. Pritchard was a student of Leon Gregorian, Catherine Comet, and Elizabeth Green. He has had additional training with Gustav Meier, David Lobel, Neeme Jarvi, and Adrian Gnam as an active participant in American Symphony Orchestra League and Conductors Guild and other conducting workshops. He credits his musical sensitivity to his training in the Musin tradition with Leonid Korchmar and Peter Gribanov in St. Petersburg, Russia.
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Dr. Pritchard's technical ability and natural rapport with the audience and orchestra alike have afforded him many opportunities over the past twenty-five years. He previously served as Music Director of Opera Company of Mid-Michigan, conducting acclaimed performances that include La Boheme, Madama Butterfly, Don Giovanni, Don Pasquale, The Bartered Bride, The Old Maid and the Thief, and Faust. He has also held faculty positions at Georgia State University, University of Evansville (IN), Indiana Wesleyan University, Taylor University (IN), Konservatori Seni Halus (Fine Arts Conservatory, Penang, Malaysia), and Hope College (MI). Additional conducting positions include Associate Conductor of the Kokomo Symphony Orchestra (IN), Music Director of the Holland Area Youth Orchestra (MI), Music Director of the Gwinnett County Youth Symphony (GA) and Assistant Conductor at the Music Festival of Arkansas and Southeastern Music Center (GA).

Dr. Pritchard’s passion for music began as a young child and he has pursued it at every opportunity. He has studied every instrument in the orchestra at one point or another in his career. He holds a Woodwind Specialist Performance Degree from Michigan State University and has taught all five of the woodwinds at the college level—bassoon, saxophone, oboe, clarinet, and flute. Violin and viola are his primary string instruments and he taught exemplary string programs in the public schools for seventeen years. His extensive engagements around the globe as a bassoonist and saxophonist include the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (GA), Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Fort Wayne Philharmonic (IN), Charleston Symphony Orchestra (SC), Penang State Symphony (Malaysia), Evansville Philharmonic (IN), Owensboro Symphony (KY), Lansing Symphony (MI), and Grand Rapids Symphony (MI). Some fun highlights include performing with Josh Groban on The Oprah Show and playing saxophone in concert with The Temptations. As a ballet orchestra performer, he currently serves as Principal Bassoonist with the Georgia Ballet and Gwinnett Ballet. He has guest conducted several ensembles throughout the United States, including the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra (MO), Macon Symphony (GA), Lake Charles Symphony (LA), Gwinnett Ballet (GA), West Virginia State Philharmonic, Southeastern Ohio Symphony, Grande Ronde Symphony (OR), Atlanta Wind Symphony, Miami University Orchestra (OH), and Alma Symphony (MI).

Dr. Pritchard has amassed an impressive array of awards and accolades. In 1990, as Assistant Conductor of the Blue Lake International Youth Symphony Orchestra, he conducted performances in Germany, Austria, Hungary, and France, and was selected to perform a private concert for the Chancellor of Vienna. In 1997 the Lansing State Journal named him "Exceptional Music Director" for his work at the Riverwalk Theater (MI). Also in 1997, he was appointed the first ever Fellowship Conductor of the Grand Rapids Symphony, conducting Family and Special Event performances and cover conducting educational and pops programs. In 2004 he won first prize at the International Conductors Workshop and Competition in Macon, Georgia and the Advanced Conducting Workshop in St. Petersburg, Russia. Also in 2004, he was named a Semifinalist for the National Conducting Institute in Washington D.C. In October 2005, he guest conducted the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Congress Orchestra (the orchestra of the Russian Ballet) as a result of his competition win the previous year. In 2010 he made his conducting debut in Italy with the Orchestra da Camera del Friuli Venezia Giulia.

Dr. Pritchard is also deeply committed to education and shares his infectious love of music with his students as a veteran music teacher with Gwinnett County Public Schools in Georgia. He made his Carnegie Hall conducting debut in 2002 with the Brookwood Philharmonic. Currently, he serves as the Fine Arts Department Chair at Gwinnett Online Campus where he developed an entire online music curriculum.

After winning first place in conducting competitions in both the United States and Russia, Dr. Pritchard was appointed as a faculty member of the International Conductors Workshop and Competition in 2005. He now serves as Co-Director of the workshop, tutoring dozens of talented conductors each year, many of which have gone on to conduct top orchestras around the United States and abroad including San Francisco Symphony, Detroit Symphony, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Dallas Symphony, New Zealand Symphony, Toronto Symphony, and many others.