Meet Brian Hughes

Brian’s teaching strategies are adaptive, effective, and applicable to all levels and ages, making him a one-of-a-kind teacher; regardless of age and ability, Brian’s flexible yet strategic and collaborative methods will unlock your unseen musical abilities.

When Brian is not playing, composing, or teaching music, he is seen on the tennis court, where he displays equal talent!

Irish pianist Brian Hughes recently graduated with Distinction in a Master of Performance in Collaborative Piano at the Royal College of Music, training in many areas, including improvisation and composition for the screen.

He has performed across various genres, including art song, opera, musical theatre, popular and orchestral. Venues he has performed in across London include the Royal Albert Hall (opening ceremony of the ATP Champions’ Tennis Finals), Wigmore Hall (auditioning for an Irish Heritage Bursary), Princess Alexandra Hall at the Royal Over-Seas League (Irish Heritage concert), and recitals in churches such as St Marylebone (with flautist Amy Gillen), St. James’ Sussex Gardens (with soprano Leilani Barratt) and St. George’s Hanover Square (Irish Heritage Christmas Concert).

Brian has a lifetime of experience in music education, working with all ages. His teaching style has a rare sensitivity to engaging and working with others, which he has developed not just through his one-to-one teaching but also as an accompanist with choirs, singers, and instrumentalists of all ages.

Brian loves to teach piano holistically by incorporating many different elements into his lessons to help students become well-rounded musicians: playing by ear, playing by imitation, improvising, reading, singing, working on technique and composing, aiming to connect all these different aspects of music.

As someone who first began playing by ear and improvising, then learning piano by reading, Brian’s teaching philosophy is that it is possible to learn both simultaneously and that it doesn’t need to be one or the other.”

Brian was the musical director and arranger/composer for a new musical entitled The Ballad of the Cosmo Cafe in 2019, performed in Belsize Park as part of the Insiders/Outsiders festival. He was also a Leeds Lieder Young Artist in 2019 and performed at a lecture-recital at the 2019 Oxford Lieder Festival.

Brian resumes his position as musical director for a new production of The Unicorn and Joe, which will take place in the Arcola Theatre in October. He will also be performing a concert of Lieder in September alongside fellow RCM graduates.”