Devin Patrick Hughes is entering his third season as Music Director of the Boulder Symphony Orchestra (formerly Niwot Timberline 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 chosen with eleven other young conductors to participate in the prestigious Arturo Toscanini International Conducting Competition in Italy.

An avid performer and promoter of the music of our time, Mr. Hughes has initiated a composer-in-residence program with the Boulder Symphony Orchestra.  This season the Boulder Symphony will premiere works of Luis Jorge Gonzales, Gregory T.S. Walker, Chip Michael and Colin Thurmond.  During the 2009-2010 season the orchestra commissioned and premiered four new works, culminating in performances of award winning composer Gregory T.S. Walker’s uneasy sits the king for 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 the King’s Center performance of Raga, Rumba and Rimsky in April of 2011 which will fuse musical elements of the Americas, India, Arabia and Russia and also feature 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, Mr. Hughes 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, Arturo Marquez and Thomas Osborne.

Equally at home in all musical styles and periods, his infectious enthusiasm for all music 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 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, he presented Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Golden Concert Choir and acclaimed baritone Robert Gardner in celebration of the composer’s 200^th birthday.  Mr. Hughes was recently selected to conduct Don Giovanni, La Traviata and Madame Butterfly in the Blue Danube International Opera Conducting Competition during the summer of 2011.  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, Mr. Hughes has held benefit concerts for organizations such as 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 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.

Mr. Hughes 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, 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 Denver.

www.devinpatrickhughes.com