BIOGRAPHY

David William Hughes (b.1990) is a musician and performing artist whose work combines music with storytelling and historical research. David William Hughes made his international debut at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2017 and subsequently completed Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Music at the University of Oxford. David lived and worked from 2014 to 2020 in Boston, where he made a name for himself as an innovative und entertaining performer, singer and conductor. David has performed with many different ensemble and solo projects to critical accalaim across the USA, UK, Australia, Israel, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden and Germany. He is now based in Freiburg, where he is active as a singer, composer, bandleader, conductor, concert promoter and researcher.

RETRO COUNTRY JAZZ RENAISSANCE

In in show about nostalgia and the search for authenticity, David sings Country, Jazz and Renaissance songs with a retro twist, either solo or as a duo with guitarist Jan Klementz.

Showcase Freiburg

David William Hughes and the Hausband present the best of Freiburg’s music and performance acts on Tuesday nights in ARTIK Freiburg. In the style of a late-night TV show with guests, games and great music, Showcase Freiburg is a unique event on the Freiburg Scene.

This project is sponsored by the Jazz-Rock-Schule Freiburg, Regionet, the Kulturamt Freiburg and the Carl-Schurz-Haus.

Voices intakt

David has been the director of the 60-voice women chorus Voices inTakt since 2024. For more information, please visit the choir’s own website here.

The Music of Estêvão de Brito

The Music Estêvão de Brito (c.1575-1641) is the title of David’s doctoral dissertation, which he is writing under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Cosima Linke at the Musikhochschule Freiburg. This project is supported by the Landesgraduiertenförderung Baden-Württemberg.

Come Again

In the 1950s and 60s pop music came of age. At the same time, classical musicians were rediscovering and reinterpreting early music. The album Come Again is a thought experiment: what if those pop musicians had also discovered early music?

Featuring songs by composers such as John Dowland, Estêvão de Brito and Thomas Tallis, this is Early Music as you’ve never heard it before. Come Again is funded by a grant from the Ministry of Arts and Research, Baden-Württemberg, and will be released in April 2023.

You can buy the album here.

Past Projects

David’s previous projects have included Tactus Ensemble, a chamber choir based in Cambridge, Massachussetts, Elizabethan, a musical based on Renaissance lute-songs that toured to four continents and was selected for historical preservation by the National Archives of Scotland, Wit and Mirth, a cabaret based on a 17th-century songbook, and a production of Pergolesi’s opera La Serva Padrona, which toured in the UK, Germany and Sweden, and was funded by a grant from the state of Baden-Württemberg.