Robert Grove Hughes (1933–2022) was an American composer, conductor, bassoonist and music scholar based in the San Francisco Bay Area.Kosman, Joshua. "Composer, conductor, impresario, bassoonist — Robert Hughes did it all," San Francisco Chronicle, October 28, 2022. Retrieved July 27, 2023.Shere, Charles. "Huzzah for Robert Hughes,'" Oakland Tribune, October 14, 1974, p. 24.New Music USA. Robert Grove Hughes, Online Library. Retrieved July 27, 2023. He was known for his wide-ranging artistic interests—extending to poetry, performance art and social commentary—and advocacy of contemporary, often experimental music.Hertelendy, Paul. "Choral Collage a Tribute to Ezra Pound," Oakland Tribune, June 12, 1975, p. 22.Herman, Kenneth. "Anti-War Ode Inspires Ma Fish Co Score," "Los Angeles Times", June 14, 1986. Retrieved July 27, 2023.Hertelendy, Paul. "Symphony Spotlight on Hughes, Kell," Oakland Tribune, April 22, 1973. San Francisco Chronicle critic Joshua Kosman described Hughes as a visionary and "musical Zelig" who "played a key role in a vast range of ambitious and influential musical projects." In the 1960s, Hughes co-founded the long-running Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and co-founded and led the award-winning Oakland Symphony Youth Orchestra.Alsop, Marin. "An Oasis Of New Music At The Cabrillo Festival," NPR, July 31, 2009. Retrieved July 27, 2023.Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. "Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music Announces its 61st Season," March 21, 2023. Retrieved July 27, 2023.Shere, Charles. "Oakland Youth Orchestra conquers Italian cathedral," Oakland Tribune, August 24, 1980. In subsequent decades he co-founded and led the Arch Ensemble for Experimental Music with baritone vocalist Thomas Buckner and co-directed the performance group MA FISH CO with his wife, artist Margaret Fisher.Tircuit, Heuwell. "A Daring Step for the Arch Ensemble," San Francisco Chronicle, January 8, 1972.Raddue Gordon. "A citadel of hope for the innovative in the world of music," The Richmond Independent and Gazette, February 17, 1980, p. 3.Tucker, Marilyn. "Ma Fish Co's Odd Mix of Dance and Film," San Francisco Chronicle, July 21, 1989.
In his work as a composer and conductor, critics noted Hughes's fluency in an array of different styles, from overtly avant-garde to accessible, and his ambitious, adventurous programs.Benson, Jack. "Cabrillo's 'Auras' an Attack on Senses, But Expertly Done," San Jose Mercury, August 27, 1972.Shere, Charles. "The Youth Symphony's Offbeat 'Cadences,'" Oakland Tribune, May 11, 1976.Rockwell, John. "Youth Orchestra Responsive, Alive," Oakland Tribune, May 26, 1969. He wrote commissioned works for the San Francisco Symphony, Oakland Symphony, Cabrillo Festival and San Francisco BalletHertelendy, Paul. "Albany Composer Robert Hughes: Tailoring Music to the Performers," Oakland Tribune, July 31, 1977, p. 17-E.Tucker, Marilyn. "Soaring Cabrillo Festival,'" San Francisco Chronicle, August 30, 1971, p. 38. and contributed scores to the Hollywood movie Never Cry Wolf and to James Broughton's The Golden Positions. Hughes collaborated with diverse artists including Lou Harrison, Laurie Anderson, Frank Zappa and Ezra Pound,Tucker, Marilyn. "An Imaginative 'Pacifika Rondo,'" San Francisco Chronicle, May 26, 1969.Walsh, Alex. "Robert Hughes: A Modernist Fascination," AFM Musicians Union Local Six. Retrieved July 27, 2023.Kisselgoff, Anna. "The Lyons Opera Ballet Tangles with Zappa," The New York Times], September 24, 1990. Retrieved July 27, 2023. and for more than three decades was a bassoonist in various Bay Area orchestras and groups.Hill, Sarah. San Francisco and the Long 60s, New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015. Retrieved July 27, 2023.Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. Fearless@50, Santa Cruz, CA: Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, 2012. He died in Emeryville, California at age 88 on August 11, 2022.The New York Times. Robert Hughes Obituary," Legacy.com, September 7–8, 2022. Retrieved July 27, 2023.
Education and career summary Hughes was born in Amherst, New York, near Buffalo, in 1933. He began composing music while in high school and attended the University of Buffalo (BA, 1956), where he studied composition with Aaron Copland, Carlos Chávez and Leon Kirchner.Milich, Nick. "Cabrillo orchestra plugs into Moog," Watsonville Register-Pajaronian, August 27, 1971.Varcados, Marybeth. "The First 25 Years," 25th Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, Santa Cruz, CA: Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, 1987. After serving as a graduate teaching fellow there, he used a Baird Foundation Fellowship to study composition with Luigi Dallapiccola in Florence in 1959–60.
In 1961, Hughes relocated to Aptos, California to study intonation systems privately with Lou Harrison, beginning a long-time association during which he premiered, arranged, conducted and recorded Harrison's works.Baine, Wallace. "Cabrillo Fest opens with salute to Lou Harrison," Santa Cruz Sentinel, August 2, 2017. Retrieved July 27, 2023. That same year they established a musical and theater performance series at a local coffeehouse called the Sticky Wicket;Trabing, Wally. "Nostalgia with a Bassoonist," Santa Cruz Sentinel, September 3, 1978. two years later, the series evolved into the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, an initially informal event that championed their eclectic interests, including chamber music, Stravinsky, aleatoric (or "chance") music and performance art. The still-active, now-two-week event has developed into an internationally recognized venue for experimental and new music. During his long involvement with the festival, Hughes composed, conducted, performed and recruited figures such as Gerhard Samuel and Carlos Chávez as music directors. Hughes joined the Oakland Symphony as a bassoonist in 1962, becoming the orchestra's assistant conductor the following year. In 1964 he co-founded its Youth Chamber Orchestra (YCO, later Oakland Symphony Youth Orchestra or OSYO), serving as conductor until 1970 and again in 1979–80.San Francisco Chronicle. "New Chamber Orchestra of Young, Elite Musicians," September 13, 1964, p. 39.Amirkhanian, Charles. "Morning Concert: An Interview with Robert Hughes," KPFA-FM, December 16, 1980. Retrieved July 28, 2023.
While continuing to compose, perform and conduct for various west coast orchestras, Hughes co-founded the Arch Ensemble with baritone vocalist Thomas Buckner in 1972. Under his co-direction, the large chamber group of younger musicians (many former YCO and OSYO members) focused on experimental music within an international and multimedia context into the 1980s.Hertelendy, Paul. "At Long Lost, the 1970s Arrive in the Bay Area," Oakland Tribune, January 8, 1978, p. 15-E. In 1978, Oakland Tribune critic Paul Hertelendy recognized the group for "filling a yawning gap" in Bay Area presentations of contemporary music, while Stereo Review later described their catalog as "almost a map of what is going on in new music, not just out west but in the U.S. as a whole."E.S. "Dallapiccola: Divertimento in Quntro Esercizi; Cinque Canti," Stereo Review, February 1981.
In 1974, Hughes met choreographer and dancer Margaret Fisher at the Cabrillo Festival, where both were working on the experimental opera Joan by Beth Anderson. They would become lifelong artistic collaborators, as co-directors of the multimedia group MA FISH CO in the 1980s and 1990s,Dunning, Jennifer. "Margaret Fisher Brings Insect-Inspired Dance to Lab," The New York Times, August 14, 1981, p. C14. Retrieved July 28, 2023. and later as scholars.Fisher, Margaret. "The Ezra Pound Music Project," Make It New, The Ezra Pound Society, June 2015. Retrieved July 28, 2023.Fancher, Lou. "Growing New Music With Other Minds," San Francisco Classical Voice, January 21, 2020. Retrieved July 28, 2023. They married in 1996. Their work appeared at venues including New Music America, Dance Theater Workshop, the San Francisco Exploratorium and the Venice Biennale.Pollock, Sarah. "Sights, sounds of Dante's Hell tried at Exploratorium," Oakland Tribune, September 20, 1987, p. E-1, E-6.Stein, Ellin. "A Man's Passion for Bugs," San Francisco Chronicle, July 4, 1980, p. 49. In the 2000s, Hughes continued his scholarship begun in 1958 on the musical works of Ezra Pound with Fisher and began composing his multi-perceptual work, Silenus' Antiphonary.
Work in music Hughes's main activities in music were composing, conducting and organizing musical programs, scholarship and performing on bassoon, contrabassoon, and the Korean piri. His collaborations with various organizations and people—most notably, the Oakland Symphony and Youth Chamber Orchestra, the Cabrillo Festival, Lou Harrison, the San Francisco Symphony, Arch Ensemble and MA FISH CO—were directed toward experiments in acoustic and electronic music.
Conducting Hughes gained early recognition as conductor of the Oakland Youth Chamber Orchestra (YCO) between 1963 and 1970.Commanday, Robert. "Youth Orchestra Plays New Work," San Francisco Chronicle, April 11, 1967. Under his direction, the YCO's performances, tours and recordings were noted by San Francisco Chronicle and Oakland Tribune critics for their inventive programming and readings, responsiveness to diverse styles, musicality and expressiveness.Hertelendy, Paul. "A Musical First for the South," Oakland Tribune, April 3, 1970.Shere, Charles. "Youth Orchestra takes on Stravinsky challenge," Oakland Tribune, January 13, 1980, p. G-33. The orchestra performed commissioned premieres from Laurie Anderson, Henry Brant, Lou Harrison, Ned Rorem and Olly Wilson, an avant-garde music-theater piece by Robert Moran, works by contemporary Mexican composers Carlos Chávez and Silvestre Revueltas, and classical pieces such as Stravinsky's challenging The Rite of Spring.Amirkhanian, Charles. "Muse Aghast: Kingdom Come," KPFA Folio, July 1971..Hertelendy, Paul. "Youth Orchestra in Them Thar Hills," Oakland Tribune, March 21, 1968.
YCO's 1968 western tour, "A Panorama of California Music," presented a program of rare works (many formerly lost manuscripts recovered by Hughes) from California's gold-rush days and early ethnic groups; they included pieces by French composer Camille Saint-Saëns (Hail, California, 1915) and author Robert Louis Stevenson. In 1970, the orchestra toured black colleges in Texas and Louisiana with "The Black Composer in America," a program championing overlooked music by significant, living composers such as Margaret Bonds, Ulysses Kay, William Grant Still and George Walker. After Hughes returned as conductor in 1979, the renamed OSYO toured Italy, performing classical (Mahler's Tenth; Haydn 71) and contemporary works (Wilson's Reflections; Hughes's own Eclogarii).Stack, Barbara Toby. "Oakland Youth Orchestra Repertoire History." Retrieved August 9, 2023. In 1980, the orchestra won the ASCAP Award for adventuresome programming of contemporary music.