Brian Hughes was born in Ponciau, North Wales and graduated from Cardiff University. He is well known as  a composer, conductor, accompanist and vocal consultant he was for many years Chorus Master and Head  of Opera Music Staff at the Royal Northern College of Music and has been awarded a Fellowship from his own college and from the Royal College of Music and Drama, Cardiff.

Among the many well known choruses he has conducted are those of the:-

Buxton International
The Gothenburg Opera
Cheltenham Festival
The Britten Singers

He relinquished his full-time post at the RNCM in 1992 to pursue his many other musical commitments. During his time at the college he directed many memorable performances including

Britten’s Spring Symphony and his own opera Stars and Shadows which was also performed in London and Birmingham.

 

In 1993 he was engaged as

Music director for the Australian premiere of Britten’s Billy Budd at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music

His many professional engagement as conductor range from

Bach’s St John Passion and Christmas Oratorio

to contemporary Operas such as

Stephen Oliver’s The Waiter’s Revenge
Peter Maxwell Davis’ The two fiddlers
The Little Sweep by Britten

In 1990 the work ‘Dadl Dau’ was commissioned by the BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra and performed in St. David’s Hall, Cardiff; ‘Strata’ for very large orchestra (inspired by Strata Florida) was performed by the RNCM Symphony Orchestra in Manchester and Kendal in 1991 whilst the Clwyd Youth Orchestra gave performances of “What’s Next?” in 1994

 

Among his larger scale choral works is It is for Man, for massed -children’s voices and two pianos,
premiered at Chester Cathedral in 1993. His flute Sonatina won a competition sponsored by the Guild for the Promotion of Welsh Music, and ‘Quando!’, for clarinet and piano was commissioned in 1994 by the Rhyl Festival.

 

He has written choral an orchestral works for:-

The Royal National Eisteddfod of Wales
The BBC
HTV
The National Youth Choir of Wales

His Three Shakespearean Songs for soprano and piano were first performed at the Purcell Room, London in 1992. He wrote songs for S4C television’s A Century of Song in 1995, and in 1996 his Japanese Nursery Songs were premiered at the Chester National Youth Choir Festival. Te Deum, a large scale work for soloists, chorus and orchestra was first performed at Ripon Cathedral in 1998 and Pren Plandedig, for soprano soloist, male voice choir and orchestra was performed three times under his direction in 2002, and was given a further performance at Royal National Eisteddfod of Wales in 2003. In July 2003 the first performance of Tanau, for brass and orchestra was given by the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Cory Brass Band at the Welsh Proms in St. David’s Hall, Cardiff. The premiere of his Requiem took place in Trawsfynydd, North Wales in April 2005 – the unusual scoring for this work is: tenor soloist, mixed and male voice chorus, violin solo, percussion and piano and there have been further performances in St. Asaph and Carmarthen.

The premiére of his Dylan Thomas songs “Darkness Comes Psalming” was given at the Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea on 25th October 2006 as part of the Swansea Festival of Music and the Arts.

In 2008 he was commissioned to write a piece for Symphonia Cymru, a work for three flutes, percussion and strings. In 2009 his work for orchestra, “Troad” was given five performances at various locations in Wales by the National Youth Orchestra of Wales. In 2010 his “Nunc Dimittis” and “Beatus Vir” was given its first performance by the cathedral chorus at Westminster, London. In 2016 he was commissioned to write a Grace for Peterhouse College, Cambridge – the text had long been associated with the college but had never been set to music; “Benedic nos, Domine, et dona tua.”

In 2017 he was commissioned to write “Marw’r Ehedydd” for St Asaph Music Festival, a work for flute, percussion and strings, and in 2018 his large scale work “The Sorrows of the Somme” was performed at BBC Hoddinott Hall by the National Youth Chorus and National Youth Orchestra of Wales.

He studied piano with Patrick Piggott and has served as accompanist to singers in Masterclasses with Joan Hammond, Joan Sutherland and Sherrill Milnes.

He is a specialist Vocal Consultant and works regularly with leading amateur and professional singers.