Dr Ed Hughes

Biography

Ed Hughes studied music at the Universities of Cambridge and Southampton, where he completed his PhD in Composition in 2004. His work as a composer has included ensemble, orchestral, solo and vocal compositions, all of which have been performed in the UK and many abroad, and broadcast on BBC Radio 3.

In 2004 Ed completed a work for ensemble and electronic music to commission from the Brighton Festival. Entitled Memory of Colour, it was then performed at the Sydney Festival in January 2005 in the Studio Theatre of the Sydney Opera House.

In 2005 Ed was commissioned by City of London Festival and The Opera Group to compose an opera, The Birds, with librettist Glyn Maxwell.

He composed new scores to Eisenstein’s classic silent films, Battleship Potemkin and Strike to commissions from the Brighton Festival and New Music Players, supported by Arts Council England. These were recorded and released on Tartan Video DVDs in 2007.

In 2007 he collaborated with visual artist Sophy Rickett to create a new film with music, entitled Auditorium, commissioned by Glyndebourne Opera and Photoworks. This work has been screened and exhibited internationally, following the premiere with live orchestra and sound diffusion by Sound Intermedia at Glyndebourne in November 2007. Tate Britain and galleries in Bexhill (De La Warr), Modena, Cardiff, Berwick-On-Tweed Film Festival, Courtauld Institute, LOOP Film Festival at Liceu Opera and Tokyo Nichido Contemporary Art Gallery have featured the work.

His opera, When the flame dies, has received development support from OperaGenesis, an initiative of ROH2 (Covent Garden) supported by the Genesis Foundation, the Leche Trust and Brighton Festival. Extracts have been heard at the Linbury Studio Theatre at the Royal Opera House, and at the Brighton Festival. Further information here.

His choral work, A Buried Flame (2010), which sets texts from the collection Poems from Guantanamo (Iowa, 2007), was written for the Bath Camerata following an award from the PRS Foundation.

He has received two nominations from the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters Awards: for Memory of Colour (New Media: 2005); and Auditorium (Sonic Art: 2008).

His work has been recorded by NMC, London Independent Records and Unknown Public.

His scores are published by University of York Music Press and BMIC/Sound and Music. His personal website is www.edhughes.org.uk.

Role

Senior Lecturer in Music

Composition, contemporary music, music theatre, film music, music and sound for 'silent' cinema.

I teach musical composition at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and also supervise PhD composition students. My teaching and supervision often includes critical engagement with computer-based creative work, and composition techniques.

Student Consultation

Spring Term 2013.

My drop-in office hour (weekly) is Monday 1pm to 2pm

My bookable office hour (weekly) is Tuesday 1pm to 2pm

Ozu, Yasujiro and Hughes, Ed (2013) The gangster films: three silent films by Yasujiro Ozu. [Video]

Hughes, Ed and Chandler, David (2012) Dark formations. [Composition]

Hughes, Ed (2012) Dark Formations: music by Ed Hughes. [Audio]

Hughes, Ed (2012) Three melodramas. [Video]

Hughes, Ed and Morris, R (2012) When the flame dies. [Composition]

Hughes, Ed (2012) Ozu: The Student Comedies. [Image]

Hughes, Ed, Tearle, K, Rickett, S and Chandler, D (2011) Interview: David Chandler and Katie Tearle with Sophy Rickett and Ed Hughes on 'AUDITORIUM' for Glyndebourne. In: AUDITORIUM. Photoworks, pp. 41-63. ISBN 978-1-903796-23-8

Hughes, Ed (2011) A Mother Should Be Loved: the musical score. DVD liner notes, BFIB10. pp. 12-13.

Hughes, Ed (2011) I Was Born, But... [Composition]

Hughes, Ed (2011) A Mother Should Be Loved. [Composition]

Hughes, Ed (2011) A new score for Yasujiro Ozu's 'I Was Born, But...'. In: 'Good Morning/I Was Born, But...' - Liner Notes. BFI, pp. 14-17.

Hughes, Ed (2010) Chamber Concerto. [Composition]

Hughes, Ed (2010) A Buried Flame. [Composition]

Hughes, Ed (2007) Film Sound, Music and the Art of Silence. In: Silence, Music, Silent Music. Ashgate Publishing Limited, pp. 87-95. ISBN 978-0-7546-5559-6

Hughes, Ed (2007) Auditorium: for orchestra. [Composition]

Hughes, Ed (2007) Battleship Potemkin: film score for ensemble. [Composition]

Hughes, Ed (2007) New technologies and old rites: dissonance between picture and music in readings of Joris Ivens's 'Rain'. In: Composing for the Screen in Germany and the USSR: Cultural Politics and Propaganda. Indiana University Press, pp. 93-105. ISBN 978-0-253-34976-7

Hughes, Ed (2007) Strike: film score for ensemble. [Composition]

Hughes, Ed (2007) Memory of Colour: for ensemble and electronics. [Composition]

Hughes, Ed (2005) Scoring 'Rain': a contemporary British composer's perspective. Joris Ivens Newsmagazine (11). p. 26. ISSN 1568-9131

Hughes, Ed (2005) The Birds: opera. [Composition]

Hughes, Ed (2003) Crimson Flames: for orchestra. [Composition]

Hughes, Ed (2003) Light Cuts Through Dark Skies. [Composition]

Hughes, Ed (2003) The Sibyl of Cumae. [Composition]

Hughes, Ed (1999) Sextet. [Composition]

Hughes, Ed (1997) Chroma. [Composition]

Hughes, Ed (1997) Quartet. [Composition]

Hughes, Ed (1996) Sun, New Moon and Women Shouting. [Composition]

Hughes, Ed (1991) Media Vita. [Composition]