Bernard Hughes

Bernard Hughes's music has featured on two choral albums: Precious Things, performed by the London choir Epiphoni, was released on Delphian Records in 2022, and described by Judith Weir as ‘choral music as we rarely hear it – generous, light-footed, surprising’, and I am the Song, performed by the BBC Singers, came out on Signum Classics in 2016.

He has been shortlisted for the Ivor Novello Composer Awards three times, most recently for Hear My Heart Sing in 2025.

Bernard Hughes is Composer-in-Residence at St Paul’s Girls’ School in London, and in that capacity has written numerous works including the anthem L’Imagination, premiered at St Paul’s Cathedral, and Ada, a one-act opera commissioned by the school.

Bernard Hughes’s music is published by Wild Woods Music, Novello and VOCES8 Publishing and has been performed and broadcast widely on Radio 3 and across Europe and the US. Bernard writes regularly for theartsdesk cultural review website, reviewing concerts, CDs and books.

In a previous career as a comedian, Bernard was part of the show that won the Perrier Best Newcomer award at the 1999 Edinburgh Fringe, alongside Ben Willbond and Arnold Widdowson. His music also featured on the Horrible Histories film Bill (2015).