Bernard Hughes has received funding from the Francis Routh Trust to help fund a new commission by the Bath-based choir Lucis. The grant award will help bring to life a new piece Bernard is writing for the choir, to be premiered by Lucis (conducted by Francis Faux) and subsequently performed by other British choirs in their 2024/5 seasons.
Bernard’s new choral miniature Night Song has been released by VOCES8 Publishing, the music publishing branch of the VOCES8 Foundation. The music is an arrangement of the piano piece Song of the Walnut, released recently on the album Bagatelles, performed by Matthew Mills. Night Song uses words by the English poet John Fletcher (1579-1625) and is scored for SATB choir with divisi. It is available now as a digital download.
Bernard’s new song cycle Metropolis features on the new album Songs for Out Times, released by Divine Art Records in October 2023. With words by Chinwe D. John, the song cycle is sung by soprano Isabelle Haile, with Christopher Glynn at the piano.
Bernard Hughes’s new album Bagatelles is now available for pre-ordering on Apple Music. The album can be pre-saved on Apple Music - and there are two advance tracks available to hear ahead of the 9 June release: ‘Footprints’ and ‘Song of the Walnut’. Click here for the full range of listening options. Bagatelles is on the Divine Art label, featuring pianist Matthew Mills.
The first pre-release track from Bernard’s forthcoming album of piano music is out now on YouTube. Pianist Matthew Mills plays ‘footsteps’ from the set of Bagatelles after which the album is named. The album Bagatelles: Piano Music by Bernard Hughes is released on the Divine Art label on 9 June 2023.
Bernard’s new anthem Above the Height of Heaven is the lead track on the new album by the choir of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge The Stalk Had No Knots. Conducted by the college’s Director of Music Catherine Groom, the album features music by a range of contemporary composers. Above the Height of Heaven, scored for SATB choir with optional organ, was written especially for the album, to a text by the medieval mystic St Bridget of Sweden. The track is available on Spotify and Apple Music and the sheet music is available now from Wild Woods Music.
Bernard’s orchestral piece Anaphora is being performed by the Wandsworth Symphony Orchestra at its concert on 19 November. This is the latest performance of the piece premiered by Woking Symphony Orchestra as part of the Adopt-a-Composer scheme in 2011. It has alse been recorded by the Brno Philharmonic. This latest performance is part of a concert of music by composers associated with St Paul’s Girls’ School in London: Bernard Hughes, Gustav Holst and Leigh O’Hara, who also conducts the orchestra. The concert is taking place at St Paul’s Girls’ School on Saturday 19 November at 7.30pm and tickets are available now.
The Thomas Tallis Society choir will be premiering Bernard’s new commission for them, Epiphany, at their concert on Saturday 12 November. The new piece sets words by the poet and playwright Hywel John. The Remembrance-themed programme will also feature Bernard’s Perhaps, alongside music by James MacMillan, Kerensa Briggs and Cecilia McDowall. The concert, conducted by Eamonn Dougan, will be at St Alfege Church in Greenwich, and tickets are available now.
