Below is a chronological list of composition and performance work from 2006 to the present.
Drift (September 2017): Composer. Drift is a new dance piece by the Middleton Corpus, performed in York and Hull, September 2018
Prideaux Angels (December 2017): (composer and performer) An outdoor, promenade performance through the beauty of Padstow’s Prideaux Place Gardens, Prideaux Angels is a dance theatre piece created and directed by choreographer Simon Birch in collaboration with dancers: Emily Dobson (Freefall / Cscape), Anthony Middleton (MiddletonCorpus / Simon Birch Dance), Debbi Purtill (Ballet Lorent / Simon Birch Dance) and Isobel Slingerland (MiddletonCorpus / Simon Birch Dance). Plus, writer Kimberly Campanello, composers and performers Jon Hughes and Claire Ingleheart, and designer Myriddin Drualus Pharo. It was performed over Christmas 2017, with 21 performances. A children’s book has also been published by Valley Press based on the story, written by Kimberly Campanello and illustrated by Simon Birch.
Seedling (July 2017). Composer. Seedling is a new dance piece by the Middleton Corpus, performed around the UK in 2017 and 2018. Seedling won the Audience Award at the Hull Dance Choreographic Prize, 2017.
Refugium (August 2017): Outdoor composition and landscape installation for ambisonic sound system, caves, and community choir. Performed in the Creswell Crags limestone gorge, 26th August 2017. There was also a 2 month long sound installation at the Creswell Crags Visitors Centre temporary exhibition space running in July and August 2017. Future plans include a book and CD, and a one day installation of the piece at the British Library, London, December 2017.
Shoreline (August 2017): the second tour of the outdoor dance and choral piece involving 100 community singers and 5 professional dancers (see details below). The 2017 tour visited to Praa Sands, Bournemouth Beach, Watergate Bay, and Porthmeor Beach, St Ives.
Shoreline (July 2016): an outdoor piece for 100 community singers and 5 professional dancers. Performed in July 2016 on three different beaches in Cornwall: Kynance Cove, Sennan Cove and Watergate Bay. I was composer for the project, working in collaboration with choreographer Simon Birch and his company, Simon Birch Dance. Funded by the Arts Council UK. After an extremely successful tour, this project will expand into a new phase, continuing into 2017 and beyond. Shoreline website
cases of sudden conversion (May 2016): a performance piece for poetry and live electronics. This work emerged from a research trip to India undertaken by York St John University Creative Writing Lecturer and poet Kimberly Campanello and myself in order engage with a wide range of tantric and yogic contexts, both contemporary and historical, whilst gathering elements of the sonic and textual landscape. It was performed as part of a lecture-recital at the Modern Yoga Research Group/Jagiellonian University conference ‘Yoga darśana, yoga sādhana: traditions, transmissions, transformations’ in Kraków, Poland, in May 2016.
Star Carr Sonic Horizons of the Mesolithic (March 2016): Soundscape composition used as sound for permanent exhibition space devoted to the Star Carr archaeological site at the Rotunda Museum, Scarborough.
Demons (August 2015): Sound designer for devised theatre production Demons, by Common Ground Theatre. Written by Hannah Davies, directed by Tom Cornfield. The sound design involved an unbroken 90 minutes ambisonic sound fabric.
Come to the Edge (April 2015): Composer for dance piece Come to the Edge, with choreographer Simon Birch for ceremony installing Dawn French as the first Chancellor at the University of Falmouth.
A Cornish Soundscape (April 2015): Composer of ambisonic soundscape composition for ceremony installing Dawn French as the first Chancellor at the University of Falmouth.
The Rose Garden (March 2015). Dance piece created as artist in Residence at AMATA (Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts), Falmouth University, working as composer with choreographer Simon Birch and 16 dance students. Created as part of BA (Hons) Dance devised performance module.
Transmission Interactive (October 2014): Composer and sound programmer for Transmission Interactive installation at the Manchester Festival of Science.
Norrsken (August 2014): Performed at Musiikkitalo, Helsinki, Finland. Composer for 4 new electroacoustic pieces with folk musician and singer Andrea Eklund.
Transmission (June 2014): Dance piece with the Becs Andrews Company. The team for the project was led by award-winning artist and stage designer Becs Andrews in collaboration with Michael Brockhurst, an evolutionary biologist at the University of York. Composer Jon Hughes worked alongside choreographer Simon Birch, musician and computer scientist Tom Mitchell, visual artist and programmer Phill Tew and electrical engineer Seb Madgwick.
Hydrology (March 2014): New dance piece based on our relationship to water in the landscape, created with choreographer Simon Birch and 12 second year undergraduate dance students at Falmouth University. Performed at the Performance Centre, Falmouth University, 13th and 14th March 2014. Hydrology website here
After Ovid (assistant director, November 2013): the University of York department of music’s 2013 first year practical project. Directed by Ambrose Field.
Aestas (September 2013): New piece for vocal quartet and electronics, based on Pythagoras’ text from book XV of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Performed as part of York Late Music Festival’s Madrigal Redux concert.
Terrarium (August 2013): Tour across Cornwall as part of dance festival Salt. Performance locations include the Bedruthan Steps, Daymer Bay and Trerice Manor. Salt Festival website here. Terrarium video here
Terrarium (July 2013): 2 performances in London (Devonshire Square and Canary Wharf) as part of the City of London Festival in July. Terrarium video here
Star Carr: Sonic Horizons of the Mesolithic (May 2013): New outdoor ambisonic sound installation and research project created in collaboration with the Yorkshire Museum’s new After the Ice exhibition. Performed in the Museum Gardens. Created together with Ben Elliot, archaeologist and member of the archaeological team working at the famous Star Carr site, featured this month on Channel 4’s Time Team special Britains Stone Age Tsunami broadcast May 30th 2013. Sonic Horzons website.
May 2013: Vocal soloist in Gamelan Sekar Petak concert, Jack Lyons Concert Hall, York. Sung solo part in premiere of John Jacobs new piece, and as part of a new trio vocal piece by Charlotte Pugh with members of the Southbank Players.
February 2013: Phase Revival. Showcase performance at the Howard Assembly Rooms, Opera North
December 2012: Phase Revival. Created by Andrews&Lynch in collaboration with the Physical Chemistry Group at Leeds University. Phase Revival is an immersive kinetic installation, inspired by the physics of spectroscopy and molecules. With music composed by Jon Hughes, based on the oscillations of the installation itself. Andrews&Lynch are Becs Andrews and Dave Lynch. Becs is the DARE fellow in Scenography at Opera North and Leeds University. Dave is a film maker, projectionist and inventor. Funded by Royal Society of Chemistry & DARE. Phase Revival Website
November 2012: Getting Nowhere festival and conference. I working on this project realising a number of pieces and projects as assistant to Professor Bill Brooks, a musicologist and composer who worked with Cage regularly for over 30 years. 14th – 17th November at the University of York. Getting Nowhere website
November 2012: A Dip in the Lake, A multi media sound installation based on Cage’s text score A Dip in the Lake, created with undergraduate students from the University of York department of Music. Performed in York 14th-18th November 2012. A Dip in the Lake website
July – September 2012: Terrarium. Dance piece with the Simon Birch Dance Company. Commissioned with Arts Council funding for the 60th Anniversary of the North York Moors Park Authority. Performed across the North York Moors, in Sheffield, Leeds, London and Hull throughout July, August and September. This project will continue in 2013 with more performances planned. Terrarium website
May 2012: Another Place for solo recorder and electronics. Performed as part of the York Spring Festival. This piece was created collaboratively with Charlotte Pugh and will be part of a solo concert by her, paired with a version of Steve Reich’s Vermont Counterpoint, among other pieces. Another Place
April 2012: 3 week tour of China as Tenor with choir The 24. Will be singing solo tenor for Stef Conner’s new piece that has been commissioned for the tour.
Feb 2012: Performed as tenor with The 24 as part of Slung Low theatre company’s production Converging Paths: Darkness at the Sun Court. Exciting innovative theatre from Slung Low with the audience using headphones on a wireless soundsystem. There will be 4 more related performances throughout the year in different locations in the UK.
Jan 2012: Snow Cradle – new solo album created of electronic music using gamelan samples. Nearly finished now! Been working on this for over a year. Putting the finishing touches to the mixes. Hopefully will be released soon.
Jan 2012: Ice Pictures – new collaborative album created with John Jacobs and Charlotte Pugh using a combination of improvised gamelan and electronics. Soon to be released. Ice Pictures info
November 2011: Goodnight Gertrude – Assistant to Professor Bill Brooks for the University of York’s 2011 practical project. 2 performances in the Jack Lyons Concert Hall. I was in charge of sound tech, and created a set of video and audio transitions for the piece with a group of new undergraduate first years.
September 2011: Terrarium. The performance of a 7 minute version of Terrarium at Yorkshire Dance in Leeds as part of Leeds Light Night. The full piece will be performed as part of the North Yorkshire Moors Park Authority’s 60th Aniversary celebrations Summer 2012.
May 13th 2011: Leaf. The performance of a new dance piece with Choreographer and dancer Anthony Middleton. Created with support from Yorkshire Dance. The second instalment of a series of works, The Middleton Corpus.
May 11th 2011: Ash Dome – Composition as an Embodied Process. Presentation of a paper at the Orpheus Institues’s conference Embodiment-Experiment at the University of York.
May 10th 2011: Video showing of Ash Dome, as part of the Orpheus institute’s conference Embodiment – Experiment at the University of York.
May 7th 2011: Terrarium. A new dance piece with movement artist Simon Birch and dancers Debbie Purtill and Ricardo Meneghini. Supported by the Arts Council. This is the first installment of a much longer piece that we will continue working on throughout the year.
March 2011: Ash Dome. A new dance piece with movement artist Simon Birch and 26 first year student from the Northern School of Contemporary Dance. Based on the Work of British sculpture David Nash. Performed at the NSCD 22nd and 23rd March 2011.
March/April 2011: Three week tour of China with choir The 24. We sung 13 concert dates in different cities, spanning the whole of China in major concert venues. Singing a selection of works from the Chinese, English and American choral repertory.
Sept 2010: Chorus 2 from The Women of Trachis for live Javanese Gamelan, dancers and alto solo. Part of Global Day for the Cultural Olympiad at Harewood House, Yorkshire. Composers Jon Hughes and John Jacobs. Dancers from the Northern School of Contemporary Dance, choreographed by Andile Sotiya.
July 2010: Tenor soloist and actor for Veritidas Opera’s production of The Tales of Don Quixote at the Paxton Music Festival.
July 2010: Winner of Best Small Ensemble at the Buxton Fringe Festival as tenor singer and soloist with vocal trio Bright Cecilia.
July 2010: Sound designer for The Bluest Blue, as part of the 24/7 Theatre Festival, Manchester with Old Bomb Theatre. This new play by Paul Osbourne was selected as on of ‘Three of the Best’ in the festival, and will be performed again at the Bolton Octogan, Autumn 2010
June 2010: Director, Composer, sound designer and performing musician for The Women of Trachis. Scored for Javanese gamelan and electronics, using a new translation of the Sophocles by the Dr. Richard Rowland. The first production by the new theatre company Mnemosyne Theatre.
May 2010: Founded Mnemosyne Theatre, a new company that aims to create innovative productions that emphasis the unity of the spoken word, sound and music.
April 2010: Toured China as a singer with vocal ensemble The 24 under the conductor Ju Bu Ji. Performed in Beijing, Fitzou, Hangzang and Wuhan.
March 2010: Composed Timeliners for Javanese gender, suling and electronics with Choreographer Simon Birch and dancers from the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds. Worked closely with gamelan player and composer John Jacobs. 4 performances at NSCD in March, and 2 further performances at NSCD in July 2010.
December 2009: Co-founder of Soundbox, a podcast production company. Produced podcasts for the University of York Music Department website – see http//music.york.ac.uk/soundbo, and York Theatre royal.
November 2009: Parados for Gamelan orchestra and solo alto voice. Performed at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, 28th November 2009. As part of the Gamelan Weekend festival.
November 2009: Concert performance November 2009. Solo tenor for premiere of a new composition by Niel Smith, Love in the Asylum. Also performed Dunstable’s Quem Quorum Est as tenor with the vocal trio Bright Cecelia at the University of York as part of the concert series.
November 2009: Composition Liquolidas with choreographer Jessica Hill and dancers at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Leeds. Performed at NSCD November 2009.
October 2009: Composition Unexplained with choreographer Alex Rowland and dancers at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Leeds. Performed at NSCD November 2009.
October 2009: Composed Rex Gloriosa for vocal ensemble Bright Cecilia, for voice and electronics. Performed as part of the ‘Lost Songs’ project, Rymer Auditorium 2009, and the Late Music Festival, York 2010.
March 2009: Composition Kumo No Uta for solo shakuhachi and electronics. Performed at the University of York by the Chimera ensemble March 2009.
March 2009: Sound design for On the Shore of the Wide World, at York Theatre Royal, with sold out performances March 16th-21st 2009.
February 2009:Dance Piece 2 in collaboration with choreographer Kali Gathani for electronic processed sounds and violin. Performed February 2009 at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Leeds.
November 2008:Dance Piece 1 in collaboration with choreographer Kali Gathani for electronic processed gamelan sound and solo cello. Performed November 2008 at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Leeds, and at the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, January 2009.
July 2008: Lead role as the soldier in Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale, performed at Paxton music festival July 2008.
May 2008: Composed Antigone, a new opera for gamelan orchestra, string ensemble, electronics and a cast of singers and actors. Premiered at the National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, York, May 2008. I also sung the role of King Creon. The show was produced by Viriditas Opera, directed by Mary Larew.
March 2008:The role of Shidi in a new music drama work Dust in Space by composer Stef Conner, premiered in York Minster, March 2008
November 2007: Composed Newton’s Tree, a multi media work for string ensemble, video and electronics first performed at Worldscape, Jack Lyons Concert Hall, York. I also conducted the performance.
June 2007:The role of Magi in Herod and the Slaughter of the Innocents’ a medieval music drama performed at the National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, York. Produced by Viriditas Opera.
April 2007: Composed Three Moments On a Journey for gamelan orchestra and choir. Performed at the ICMSN conference at the University of York.
May-October 2005:Street performer in Europe. Based mainly in Venice Italy, I worked with Hungarian Lutenist Garbor Zarzon singing renaissance English Lute song and English folk song. I spent time in Hungary, recording a CD and working at the Sziget music festival as part of the Tarot Labyrinth theatre project. I also spent time in Austria and Slovenia.
Jon Hughes 