James D. Pritchard, Sr., Associate Professor Emeritus is a native of Newberry, SC. He received the Bachelor of Arts degree from Newberry College. Mr. Pritchard served for four years in the U.S. Air Force Band playing clarinet, saxophone, and bassoon at Keeler Field, Mississippi; England; France; and Germany. Pritchard went on to earn the BS and MS degrees at the Juilliard School of Music and studied at Tanglewood, the Berkshire Music Center, Lennox, and Massachusetts. He studied orchestral conducting under Fritz Mahler, Dean Dixon, and Robert Ward. He studied choral conducting and vocal techniques under Robert Shaw and Elaine Brown. Among his clarinet and woodwind teachers were Augustine Duques, Vincent "Jimmy" Abato, Rosario Mazzeo, Victor Polatschek, and Harold Gomberg. Orchestration teachers included Vittorio Giannini and Peter Mennin. He performed under many noted conductors including Carl Bamberger, Leon Barzin, Eleazar de Carvalho, Dean Dixon, Frederick Fennell, Andre Kostelanetz, Serge Koussevitsky, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Jean Paul Morel, Frederick Frausnitz, and Robert Shaw. Mr. Pritchard recorded for Columbia Records.

Mr. Pritchard served as Director of Music, Choral, and Instrumental for Sumter City Schools and served a two-year term as President of the South Carolina Band Directors Association and theSouth Carolina Music Educators Association.

Mr. Pritchard began teaching at the University of South Carolina in 1959. He held the positions of Director of Bands {1959-1969); professor of clarinet, saxophone and conducting (1969-1978); and Associate Director of the School of Music, while serving as coordinator of directed teaching in choral and instrumental music education (1978-1985). Mr. Pritchard was the Conductor of the Columbia Youth Orchestra from 1971-1975 and was Principal clarinet with the Columbia Philharmonic Orchestra for 33 years. Mr. Pritchard retired from USC in 1985. His guest conducting appearances include the University of Michigan Symphonic Band and the Florence Symphony Orchestra.  In 1992 he was named to the South Carolina Music Educators Hall of Fame.

Mr. Pritchard held memberships in the National Association for American Composers and Conductors, Music Educators National Conference, College Band Directors National Association, National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors, and is an honorary life member of Kappa Kappa Psi and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity.