The cover design of Bernard’s next album, Bagatelles, has just been released. The album will be a recording of his piano music, released in 2023 on the Divine Art label, performed by his close collaborator for many years, the pianist Matthew Mills. There have already been recording sessions at the Wathen Hall in London, with more days scheduled in October. The album includes music ranging from beginners’ pieces to highly virtuosic works like Strettos and Striations, and covers music written from the 1990s up to 2022 - a new piece, Partita, written specially for the album, and dedicated to Matthew Mills.

Bernard Hughes’s choral album Precious Things has been released. Described by Master of the Queen’s Music Judith Weir as ‘choral music as we rarely hear it – generous, light-footed, surprising’, as ‘sublime’ by The Scotsman and ‘direct and singable’ by The Arts Desk, it appeared at no.25 in the classical charts in its week of release. It featured the Epiphoni Consort, conducted by Tim Reader, and is available on Delphian Records - and on all streaming services. Here is a short film of Bernard talking about the album Precious Things and here is a video of Epiphoni performing the opening track, Perhaps.

The launch concert for Precious Things, the new Epiphoni Consort album of Bernard Hughes’s choral music, will take place at St James’s Church, Islington on Friday 24 June 2022. The concert will feature a sample of pieces from the album, as well as a Q&A with Bernard and conductor Tim Reader. There will be food and drinks available as well as the chance to purchase signed copies of the CD. Tickets are available now.

Bernard Hughes’s forthcoming choral album, Precious Things, is now available for pre-order here. Released on the Delphian label, Precious Things collects together unaccompanied music written over the last decade in premiere recordings. performed by Epiphoni Consort and Tim Reader. It includes piece written for the BBC Singers, St Paul’s Girls’ School and the Seattle Pro Musica, as well as a new piece written specially for the album. Global release is on 27 May 2022 but pre-orders through the Delphian website will be delivered ahead of the release date.

The London Mozart Players are performing Bernard Hughes’s three narrator-and-orchestra pieces in two family concerts on Sunday 20 March 2022 (2.30pm and 4pm). They will be playing Not Now, Bernard, Isabel’s Noisy Tummy and The Knight Who Took All Day at St John’s, Upper Norwood, narrated by Polly Ives and live-illustrated by Rosie Brooks. Tickets are available now. All three pieces feature on the album Not Now, Bernard and Other Stories, released by Orchid Classics in 2020.

Birdchant, Bernard Hughes’s BBC Proms commission from 2021 is being performed again by the BBC Singers at the Keble Early Music festival on Friday 25 February. It will be part of a programme combining old choral pieces with contemporary responses to them. Birdchant is based on Clément Janequin’s Le Chant des Oiseaux and will end the concert. The BBC Singers will be conducted by Chief Conductor Sofi Jeanin in the chapel of Keble College. Tickets are available now.

The London-based chamber choir Londinium is performing Bernard Hughes’s Two Choral Fanfares as part of its Silence and Music concert, celebrating their return to singing, on Friday 15 October 2021. Londinium previously sang Bernard’s A Medieval Bestiary and this concert also features music by Leighton, Briggs and Vaughan Williams. Tickets for the concert, at St Gabriel’s in Pimlico, are available now.

Bernard Hughes’s BBC commission Birdchant is be premiered in the BBC Proms 2021. Written for the BBC Singers and their chief conductor Sofi Jeanin it will be heard at the Royal Albert Hall on 19 August, in a programme of new choral responses to older works. Birdchant takes as its starting point Clement Janequin’s Le Chant des Oyseaux and is programmed alongside new music by Nico Muhly and Shiva Feshareki.