James Hughes

It's been an interesting year and a bit for me as a composer.

 

Realising that no-one was knocking my door down, despite being a PITA with emails, I decided to take advantage of the free time by enrolling at BML, (Book, Music and Lyrics) a central London based course for Musical Theatre creators. The curious itch as to whether or not I could compose a musical has never left me, going back even as far as my LIPA days but STOMP came along and altered my trajectory.

So doing the course has been an invaluable experience, not only for getting stuck into those writing assignments, but for meeting an awesome bunch of super talented peeps.

 

Of course the law of Sod saw to it that whilst up to my neck in course work over Christmas, I would be asked by Plus3K Animation to score their fantastic animated short, The Fell We Climb. Now garland laden from festivals, The Fell We Climb was an important project, and a fantastic opportunity that I was so lucky to be involved with.

 

The 2nd year at BML was a collaboration with lyricist/composer/general smarty pants Helen Arney to write the 8 tent-pole songs for a children’s historical fiction novel, The Unstoppable Letty Pegg by Iszi Lawrence. Four of these songs were performed at The Crazy Coqs showcase, Piccadilly - to I must say - rapturous applause thanks to a fantastic cast of talented Musical Theatre peeps. Although ‘Letty…’ is still in the making, we offered our song UNSTOPPABLE for selection for the Stiles & Drewe Best New Song Prize 2023 - and amazingly, our song has been selected.

The prize will be awarded at The Other Palace, London Victoria, at the end of what’s sure to be a fantastic evening of 12 songs from new musicals, on the 13th of November 2023. Helen and I - humorously referring to ourselves as Arney&Hughes - are so exited and flattered at being recognised in such talented company and at such a prestigious event. Can’t wait!!

 

You’re all caught up. 

Jx