Devin Patrick Hughes is in his third season as Music Director of the Boulder Symphony and continues to serve as Music Director of the Denver Contemporary Chamber Players. He has most recently held posts as Resident Conductor of the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra, Assistant Conductor for the Denver Young Artists Orchestra and Assistant Conductor of the Lamont Symphony Orchestra. He was recently selected with eleven other young conductors to participate in the world renowned Arturo Toscanini International Conducting Competition in Italy and as a conducting fellow at the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen.
An avid performer and promoter of the music of our time, Devin has initiated a composer-in-residence program with the Boulder Symphony. This season the Boulder Symphony will feature and premiere works of popular as well as up-and-coming contemporary composers such as Arturo Marquez, Ozie Cargile, Chip Michael, Colin Thurmond and Gregory T.S. Walker. During the 2009-2010 season the orchestra commissioned and premiered four new works, culminating in performances of Walker’s uneasy sits the king for solo baritone, boy soprano, chorus and orchestra which was premiered alongside Carmina Burana. In collaboration with Longmont’s Alternatives for Youth and the Longmont Youth Symphony, he also began an annual Latin American Festival, celebrating the shared cultural traditions of North, Central and Latin America through music and dance. This festival will culminate in performances of Transcending Cultural Compasses in April of 2011 which fuses musical elements of the Americas, India, Arabia and Russia and also features multiple world premieres.
As founder and Music Director of the Denver Contemporary Chamber Players, a group dedicated to highlighting local composers and exploring the interplay of music, theatre, art and dance, Devin commissioned and performed multiple musical responses to exhibitions in the Museum of Contemporary Art during Denver Arts Week. He also staged a very rare performance and Colorado premiere of Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale with the controversial libretto by Kurt Vonnegut. With Kulmusik and the Ithaca Contemporary Chamber Ensemble in New York, he premiered many works, such as Jesse Clark’s Cello Concerto and Free Weight Fantastique written for small ensemble and weightlifter and In the Garden of Eden, a ballet by Naomi Williams. He also performed many works by composers such as Jennifer Higdon, John Harbison, Christopher Theofanidis, Witold Lutoslawski, Avro Pärt, Keiko Abe, and Thomas Osborne.
At home in all musical styles and periods, Devin’s infectious enthusiasm for all genres has earned rave reviews. Robin McNeil, former classical music critic for the Denver Post hailed him as “know[ing] what Brahms and Dvorak are made of, and he draws a wonderful vigorousness and excitement from everyone in front of him. It is contagious.” As to the music of Strauss, “Maestro Hughes demonstrated his mastery over the waltz… [as] it is sometimes tricky for American conductors to imbue a Viennese waltz with the proper nuance… [he] had no problems whatsoever giving it a first-class lilt.” During Mozart’s Symphony no. 36 “it was clear from the orchestra’s reaction to, and partnership with [Hughes] that they were having a very good time wallowing in the music. It was full of life.” For the rhythmically complex Raga composed in 1992 by Christopher Theofanidis, “it gave Mr. Hughes a genuine workout… but he makes his job look easy. He has a certain thrift of movement that could fool some people.” Throughout Vivaldi’s Four Seasons “something needs to be said about the Lamont Symphony Orchestra. I have never heard them play so well.”
Equally active in the choral and operatic repertoire, Devin presented Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Golden Concert Choir in celebration of the composer’s 200th birthday. Upcoming engagements include Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Boulder Chorale and Brahms’s German Requiem with the Cherry Creek Chorale. During the 2009/2010 season he led the Colorado Choral Arts Society in Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana and music of Bach and Handel and was formerly the conductor of Ball State Opera for Samuel Barber’s A Hand of Bridge. He also has served as assistant conductor for productions of Carmen, The Merry Widow and Cosi fan tutte.
As an advocate of music serving a greater societal purpose and proponent of music education, Devin has held benefit concerts raising money for organizations such as the Red Cross, Oxfam International, Cultures in Harmony, the Colorado Haiti Project, C.Y.M.B.A.L. (Colorado Youth in Music Benefits Academic Learning) through the Pro Players Association, Transition Colorado and has served as an AmeriCorps tutor, mentor and coach for Nothing but Achievers and the Sangamon Valley Youth Symphony, where he arranged African-American spirituals for the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. March. He has also served as clinician for the Saint Vrain Valley All-District Orchestra Festival, adjudicator for the Colorado State Music Teachers Association’s annual Concerto Competition, and has taught courses at the Denver Academy for Lifelong Learning and the Music Schools of the University of Denver and Ithaca College in New York.
Devin has conducted many orchestras across the United States, Canada and Europe including the Colorado Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Green Bay Symphony, Des Moines Symphony, Winnipeg Symphony, Omaha Symphony, Muncie Symphony, Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini (Italy), Oradea Philharmonic (Romania) and the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic (Czech Republic). He has been featured during Colorado Spotlight with Charley Samson on Colorado Public Radio and at the Lamont School of Music he was the recipient of the Leon Guide Conducting Award, the Harry Albertson Scholarship and was granted the Jeff Bradley Musical Development Award numerous times. He is originally from Springfield, Illinois and currently resides in Boulder, Colorado with his fiancé Molly Kittle, who is a soprano.
