Owain Arwel Hughes CBE (born 21 March 1942) is a Welsh orchestral conductor.
Hughes was born in Ton Pentre, Rhondda, the son of the composer Arwel Hughes. He studied at Howardian High School, Cardiff, University College, Cardiff and the Royal College of Music. He studied conducting under Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink and Rudolf Kempe. [1] [2] According to The Oxford Dictionary of Music, Hughes's professional career began in 1968, since then his guest conductorships have included engagements with Welsh National Opera and the English National Opera, and his musical directorships have included the National Eisteddfod of Wales (1977) and the Huddersfield Choral Society (1980–1986). [3]
Hughes's other former and current appointments include: [4]
Sir Simon Denis Rattle is a British conductor with German citizenship. He rose to international prominence during the 1980s and 1990s, while music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (1980–1998). Rattle was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic from 2002 to 2018, and music director of the London Symphony Orchestra from 2017 to 2023. He has been chief conductor of Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra since September 2023. Among the world's leading conductors, in a 2015 Bachtrack poll, he was ranked by music critics as one of the world's best living conductors.
Sir Alan Charles MacLaurin Mackerras was an Australian conductor. He was an authority on the operas of Janáček and Mozart, and the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. He was long associated with the English National Opera and Welsh National Opera and was the first Australian chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. He also specialized in Czech music as a whole, producing many recordings for the Czech label Supraphon.
Sir Roger Arthur Carver Norrington is an English conductor. He is known for historically informed performances of Baroque, Classical and Romantic music.
Sir Richard Armstrong is an English conductor. He was educated at Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he was an organ scholar.
Welsh National Opera (WNO) is an opera company based in Cardiff, Wales; it gave its first performances in 1946. It began as a mainly amateur body and transformed into an all-professional ensemble by 1973. In its early days the company gave a single week's annual season in Cardiff, gradually extending its schedule to become an all-year-round operation, with its own salaried chorus and orchestra. It has been described by The New York Times as "one of the finest operatic ensembles in Europe".
The BBC National Orchestra of Wales is a Welsh symphony orchestra and one of the BBC's five professional radio orchestras. The BBC NOW is the only professional symphony orchestra organisation in Wales, occupying a dual role as both a broadcasting orchestra and national orchestra. The BBC NOW has its administrative base in Cardiff, at the BBC Hoddinott Hall on the site of the Wales Millennium Centre, since January 2009.
Sir Charles Barnard Groves CBE was an English conductor. He was known for the breadth of his repertoire and for encouraging contemporary composers and young conductors.
Sir James Loy MacMillan, TOSD is a Scottish classical composer and conductor.
Vernon George "Tod" Handley was a British conductor, known in particular for his support of British composers.
St David's Hall is a performing arts and conference venue in the heart of Cardiff, Wales.
Jiří Bělohlávek, was a Czech conductor. He was a leading interpreter of Czech classical music, and became chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in 1990, a role he would serve on two occasions during a combined span of seven years. He also served a six-year tenure as the chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra from 2006 to 2012. He gained international renown and repute for his performances of the works of Czech composers such as Antonín Dvořák and Bohuslav Martinů, and was credited as "the most profound proponent of Czech orchestral music" by Czech music specialist Professor Michael Beckerman.
James Loughran CBE, DMus., FRNCM, FRSAMD is a conductor.
Arwel Hughes OBE was a Welsh orchestral conductor and composer.
The Metropolitan Cathedral Church of St David, also known as St David's Cathedral, Cardiff, is a Catholic cathedral in the city centre of Cardiff, Wales, and is the centre of the Archdiocese of Cardiff.
Tadaaki Otaka, CBE is a Japanese conductor.
Guto Pryderi Puw is a Welsh composer, university lecturer and conductor. He is considered to be one of the most prominent Welsh composers of his generation and a key figure in current Welsh music. Puw's music has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and been featured on television programmes for the BBC and S4C. He has twice been awarded the Composer's Medal at the National Eisteddfod.
The National Youth Orchestra of Wales is the national youth orchestra of Wales, based in Cardiff. Founded in 1945, it is the longest-standing national youth orchestra in the world.
The Welsh Proms Cymru is a week long series of classical music performances which take place at the national concert hall of Wales, St David's Hall, Cardiff in July each year.
The Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra (CPO) is an orchestra based in Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa.
Professor Christopher Wood is a Welsh-born composer of sacred choral music, best known for his setting of the Requiem Mass, his Missa Brevis, the Easter Oratorio "Holy Week" and the string orchestra piece "Aberfan", commissioned for the Last Night of the Welsh Proms in 2016.