David J. Hughes is Organist & Choirmaster at St. Mary Church in Norwalk, Connecticut, where he directs a professional choir for a weekly Solemn Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite (Missal of 1962), a volunteer choir for the Latin Mass according to the Roman Missal of 2002, and several children’s choirs. He led the St. Mary’s Student Schola to sing chant and Renaissance polyphony for the primary English-speaking Masses in August 2011 at World Youth Day in Madrid; the students also sang for pontifical Masses at the Cathedral of Toledo, Extraordinary Form Missae cantatae at the Carmelite monasteries in Avila and Madrid, and for the Latin Masses sponsored by Juventutem.
Active as a composer, and fascinated by the role that plainchant can play in the inspiration of new compositions, Mr. Hughes has written extensively for choir and organ. Recent premieres include Pascha jucundissimum and the Missa de Beata Maria. Film scoring credits include Navis Pictures’ St. Bernadette ofLourdes and several documentaries.
Mr. Hughes is a member of the board of the Church Music Association of America, and serves as a chant instructor and the director of new music at the CMAA’s annual Summer Music Colloquium. He is director of music for the annual Roman Forum Summer Symposiumat Lake Garda in the north of Italy.
Mr. Hughes’ composition teachers have included Ruth Schonthal and John Halle, and he has studied organ with Paul Jacobs and Daniel Sullivan. A native of Stamford, Connecticut, Mr. Hughes is a graduate of Yale College.
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Mr. Hughes will be teaching the men’s class at the 2013 Winter Chant Intensive in Macon, GA. Arlene Oost-Zinner, Director of Programs for the CMAA and composer of the Parish Book of Psalms (yours truly) will be taking on the women’s group. Join us!