About

Bernard Hughes is a composer of exciting and appealing choral music, which ranges from the memorably melodic to the fast and rhythmic. An example is Birdchant, premiered by the BBC Singers at the BBC Proms 2021, the culmination of Bernard’s long relationship with the group. He has twice been shortlisted for the Ivor Novello Composer Awards, most recently for I Sing of Love in 2020.

His music has featured on two choral albums: Precious Things, performed by the London choir Epiphoni, was released on Delphian Records in 2022, and described by Judith Weir as ‘choral music as we rarely hear it – generous, light-footed, surprising’, and I am the Song, performed by the BBC Singers, came out on Signum Classics in 2016.

Bernard has also a wide catalogue of instrumental music, with notable success for his family pieces for narrator and orchestra. The album Not Now, Bernard and Other Stories, performed by the Orchestra of the Swan and Alexander Armstrong, was released in 2020. Other recent releases include Bagatelles, a recital of Bernard’s complete piano music, and the song cycle Metropolis as part of the album Songs for Our Times, both released by Divine Art Records.

Bernard Hughes is Composer-in-Residence at St Paul’s Girls’ School in London, and in that capacity has written numerous works including the anthem L’Imagination, premiered at St Paul’s Cathedral, and Ada, a one-act opera commissioned by the school. In a previous career as a comedian, Bernard was part of the show that won the Perrier Best Newcomer award at the 1999 Edinburgh Fringe, alongside Ben Willbond and Arnold Widdowson. Bernard’s music featured on the Horrible Histories film Bill (2015).

Bernard Hughes’s music is published by Wild Woods Music, Novello and VOCES8 Publishing and has been broadcast widely on Radio 3 and across Europe. Bernard writes regularly for theartsdesk cultural review website, reviewing concerts, CDs and books.