He started his career as a pianist, but upon meeting Bruno Maderna (assistant at the Mozarteum, Salzburg from 1968 to 1969), decided to turn towards conducting.
This association with the Italian maestro was the reason for his final decision to dedicate his work mostly to contemporary music.
Prin was subsequently guest conductor of the orchestras of the Residentie (The Hague) and of Haarlem in the Netherlands (1968–1973), then music director of the Orchestre Philharmonique des Pays de la Loire (1970–1974), of the Atelier Lyrique du Rhin (1974–1980) and of the Nouvel Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France (1981–1982).
He has recorded more than a dozen records (Etcetera, REM, Adès, Salabert Actuel, MFA, Accord) and conducted many pieces by composers from all over the world: from Claudio Monteverdi, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Schubert, Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, to Iannis Xenakis, Mauricio Kagel, Luciano Berio, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Bruno Maderna.
He has premiered operas by Georges Aperghis, François-Bernard Mâche, Ahmed Essyad, Michaël Levinas, Paul Méfano, Philippe Hersant, Henri Pousseur, Maurice Ohana, Claude Prey, André Boucourechliev and has led revivals of many others.