William Hughes (Adelaide, 1971) studied both composition and piano at the University of adelaide, graduating with a Masters degree in 1994. After several years working as an accompanist and freelance performer, he moved to Melbourne in 1997 to undertake a Ph.D in composition and musicology, which he completed in 2002. An enthusiast for Polish culture, in 1999 he conducted extensive research in Poland on the work of Karol Szymanowski. He subsequently read papers incorporating this research at musicology conferences in Melbourne (MSA, April 2001) and in Nottingham (Third Biennial Conference on Twentieth-Century Music, June 2003). He also studied composition with Aleksander Lason at the Akademia Muzyczna in Katowice.
Since 1997, much of his composition work has been devoted to the piano. He received the 2001 Jean Bogan Memorial Prize for his work Symfonia Fortepianowa. In March 2003, he completed a series of recitals featuring both the Symfonia Fortepianowa and the complete Mazurki of Szymanowski. Recently, he was awarded an ARTS SA grant to record a CD of new piano works.
He currently teaches at Brighton Secondary School in adelaide.
Updated 21-Nov-2007