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The 2024-2025 Anderson Symphony Orchestra season features our Artistic Director candidates as guest conductors.
● Each candidate will go through a rigorous week of interviews and meetings with musicians, ASO board and committee members, and staff.
● Each candidate has programmed a concert which he/she will rehearse and conduct.
● The ASO Musicians, ASO Board, and audience members will receive surveys following the candidate’s concert.
● Our new ASO Artistic Director will be chosen from these responses and offered the position.
The final concert of the season features the Rachmaniinoff Piano Concerto no. 3 in D minor, with pianist Jialin Yao. Guest conductor, Devin Patrick Hughes, currently Artistic Director/Conductor of the Arapahoe Philharmonic: Symphony of the Rockies, and Music Director/Conductor of the Boulder Symphony. He will also lead the ASO in performances of the Arturo Marquez’ “Conga del Fuego Nuevo” and Beethoven’s “Symphony no. 8 in F major.”
Meet the artistic director candidate and guest conductor: Devin Patrick Hughes
Highly regarded for his exhilarating score interpretations, advocacy for music accessibility, innate passion and entrepreneurial spirit, Devin Patrick Hughes is an American orchestral and operatic conductor of Irish and Guatemalan descent. He is concurrently serving as Artistic Director & Conductor of Symphony of the Rockies, and Music Director and Conductor of the Boulder Symphony & Music Academy. Previously he has held artistic leadership positions with the Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra, Santa Fe Youth Symphony Association, Denver Young Artists Orchestra, and Denver Philharmonic Orchestra.
Devin was recently one of three Americans invited to the Erich Bergel International Conducting Competition in Romania, the Antal Dorati Conducting Competition in Hungary, and featured in Maestro, the Solti International Conducting Competition as a semi-finalist in Budapest. He was the only American selected with eleven other conductors worldwide to compete in the Toscanini International Conducting Competition in Italy, and was a conducting fellow at the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen. He has conducted orchestras across North America and Europe including the Winnipeg Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Des Moines Symphony, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Salina Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, San Antonio Symphony, Green Bay Symphony, Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini, Orchestra da Camera Fiorentina, Tîrgu Mureș State Philharmonic, and Orchestra of the Hungarian State Opera.
In response to COVID-19, Devin has created multiple programs connecting orchestras to their communities including the Virtual Virtuoso Series & Music Connects Series, partnering with organizations such as Balfour Senior Assisted Living, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, Breckenridge Brewery, and Community Food Share to produce performances and events both virtually and live. As an advocate for community music making and inclusivity, Devin created the Boulder Symphony Music Academy, which currently serves over 100 students and makes music education universally accessible regardless of income ability in partnership with the Jared Foundation. In addition to producing outdoor and drive in concerts, including Boulder Arts Outdoors, Brass in the Park-ing Lot, and the world-renowned Takács Quartet, Devin can be heard on One Symphony, a podcast amplifying the voices of composers, performers, and other artistic entrepreneurs. As the founding Music Director & Conductor of Symphony of the Rockies and Boulder Symphony & Music Academy, Devin has fostered sustainable livings for those in the arts by raising millions of dollars that directly support professional musicians, teachers, composers, performers, and administrators. His initiatives and spirit create a culture that attracts those who want to make the orchestra approachable, assessable, and relevant for all.
Devoted to music existing for a greater communal purpose, Devin attracts and creatively engages audiences of all backgrounds by bringing the stories behind the music to life and inspiring critically acclaimed performances. He has pioneered an Emerging Artists program, a summer camp for all ages, and has held benefit concerts for organizations such as the Red Cross, Oxfam International, Cultures in Harmony, and the Colorado Haiti Project. His Discovery and Curiosity programs, created by Extra Crispy Creatives, a company he started, serve thousands of students and families each year with immersive and inspiring symphonic concert and educational content. He has also served as an AmeriCorps tutor, mentor and coach for Nothing But Achievers, and the Sangamon Valley Youth Symphony, where he arranged spirituals for the annual Martin Luther King Jr. March.
Devin has partnered to make music more universally accessible through organizations such as Carnegie Hall’s LinkUp, I Have A Dream, Circle of Care, Freemasons, Boulder Muse, El Sistema, Flatirons Strings Academy, Burrell School of the Performing Arts, and Pinnacle Charter School in Denver. Through the Glow Project and other sensory-friendly performances geared to those with autism and dementia, Devin has created programs tailored to those who cannot experience the full sound and stimulation of a live symphony orchestra. He has chaired multiple foundational competitions nurturing the development of young performers, composers, and conductors, and serves as guest clinician for student ensembles across the United States. Aside from Devin’s frequent appearances as a clinician and speaker, he has taught courses at the Denver Academy for Lifelong Learning and the Music Schools of the University of Denver, Ithaca College in New York, and New Mexico School for the Arts and serves as an annual guest artist with the International Keyboard Odyssiad and Festival.
Equally active in choral and operatic repertoire, Devin has made community collaborations a recurrent part of orchestral life. He has combined local orchestras, businesses and non-profits to begin a community-based opera program which combines seasoned operatic professionals with aspiring artists and enthusiastic community members to create unique operatic experiences. This grassroots opera initiative based in Colorado attracts dozens of vocalists nationwide per season for critically acclaimed opera and operetta productions along the Front Range, and spawned a new Opera Chorus that performs with orchestras across the region. Among others, Devin has led productions of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Puccini’s La Bohème, Bizet’s Carmen, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, Brahms’ German Requiem, and has also premiered choral-orchestral works by living composers such as Ozie Cargile, Austin Wintory & Gregory T.S. Walker.
A zealous performer and promoter of the music of our time, Devin has fostered multiple composer-in-residency programs premiering dozens of new works. He has also constructed innovative avenues to bring new music to the forefront of the classical music scene and involve students in the symphonic orchestra. His Crescendo program provides professional support and supplemental educational initiatives for elementary to high school arts programs. Under his leadership, Symphony of the Rockies (formerly Arapahoe Philharmonic) and the Boulder Symphony have become pillars for symphonic excellence and approachability, and a centralized hub for symphonic innovation, community-wide outreach and education initiatives, major collaborations, operatic performances, and premieres of exciting new music with regularly sold-out performances.
Dedicated to highlighting local composers and exploring the interplay of music, theatre, art, and dance, Devin also commissioned and performed multiple musical responses to exhibitions in the Museum of Contemporary Art during Denver Arts Week. Recently Devin has brought premieres of award winning composers Anna Clyne and Sarah Kirkland Snider’s music to Colorado and initiated a collaboration between abstract painter Will Day and composer Jonathan Bingham which resulted in music and art extemporaneously being created in real-time in collaboration with the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art. As a civic-minded citizen and ambassador for the arts, Devin was appointed by City Council to serve as Arts & Culture Commissioner for the City of Boulder. Devin’s education includes studies at Ithaca College School of Music, University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music, Grinnell College, Vienna Conservatory of Music, and Ball State University.