Bedfordshire Orchestral Society
Registered Charity Number: 262813
Bedfordshire Symphony Orchestra
Sunday 9th May, 2010
Soloist: Martin Hughes -
Martin Hughes studied violin with Leonard Hirsch at the Royal College of Music, London, as a Foundation and then Leverhulme Scholar and won all the major violin prizes, including the coveted Stoutzker Prize, the RCM’s premier award, in memory of the English violinist Albert Sammons. He made his Wigmore Hall debut in 1974 to critical acclaim, and has appeared throughout the UK, in Europe, and in Japan as recitalist and concerto player. Martin spent twenty two years with the Northern Sinfonia in Newcastle upon Tyne as section principal and subsequently Associate Leader and in this capacity he partnered such eminent violinists as Wolfgang Schneiderhan, Vladimir Spivakov and Günther Pichler in the double and triple concertos of J.S. Bach, also appearing as featured soloist on CD, BBC Radio 3 and television. His interest in the history and performance practice of the baroque period led him to re-engage with this music on period instruments and he was a founder member of the group Quadro Adriano.
In 1998 Martin was appointed Head of Strings at the RSAMD in Glasgow and his career took many new directions; he was invited to join the jury of the prestigious Munich International Competition in 2000, and formed an association with the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland.
He left Glasgow to return to England after five productive and successful years and was appointed to the position of Head of Strings at Bedford School in April 2003. He has enjoyed the many and varied challenges of life at Bedford where there is a great collaborative spirit in music-making. One such project was with the harpsichordist Richard Egarr in performances of Bach’s Fifth Brandenburg Concerto and the Sonata in G major, BWV 1019. He conducts the School Chamber Orchestra and is responsible for the string chamber music programme. He took part in the 2005 BBC1 TV “Imagine” programme, ‘Elgar and the Lost Piano Concerto’, performing part of the Piano Quintet, and made a further TV appearance on Channel 4 in Howard Goodall’s series, “How Music Works” with colleagues from the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields. He regularly plays chamber music with international colleagues in Jean-Bernard Pommier’s annual international summer Musikè academy and is a founder member of the De Parys Trio with his wife, flautist Jill Hughes, and internationally renowned guitarist Eric Hill.
In 1998 Martin was appointed Head of Strings at the RSAMD in Glasgow and his career took many new directions; he was invited to join the jury of the prestigious Munich International Competition in 2000, and formed an association with the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland.
He left Glasgow to return to England after five productive and successful years and was appointed to the position of Head of Strings at Bedford School in April 2003. He has enjoyed the many and varied challenges of life at Bedford where there is a great collaborative spirit in music-