Western Illinois University College of Fine Arts and Communication

Richard Hughey

Richard Hughey, a native of Cache Valley, Utah, is the new Director of Orchestral Activities at Western Illinois University. Having started his musical education with the cello, he developed an early interest in orchestra conducting following careful study of the scores to the Beethoven Symphonies. As a member of the local youth symphony, he had his first experience on the podium with that orchestra at the age of 15. As a high school senior, he was awarded the first prize in the music category of the Utah statewide competition “Sterling Scholars”. He later completed a Bachelor of Music at Utah State University with a Cello major and a minor in German. At the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, he complete a Master of Music degree magna cum laude, with a double major in Cello Performance and Orchestral Conducting. He then went on to the University of Arizona where he completed the Doctor of Musical Arts in Cello Performance under the tutelage of Gordon Epperson and a minor in Orchestral Conducting under Leonard Pearlman.

Following a year teaching at Fort Hays State University in Kansas, Dr. Hughey was named Assistant Conductor and Assistant Principal Cellist with the Omaha Symphony. In Omaha, he was also Principal Cellist and orchestra manager for Opera Omaha. From Nebraska, he moved to North Carolina where he served eight years as Music Director and Conductor of the Western Piedmont Symphony. There he also performed in the Western Piedmont String Quartet and directed over 800 in-school concerts during his tenure.

A strong interest in German culture, language and music, motivated Hughey to move to Germany in the fall of 1990, where he became Music Director of the Lausiter Konzertorchester. In 1992, he was invited to become the artistic director and conductor of the University Orchestra at the University in Dresden. During the first few years of this responsibility he organized a new chamber orchestra which quickly developed into the TU-Kammerphilharmonie Dresden and was recognized by the press in Dresden as one of the musical greats of the city.

Always having had a strong interest in Opera, Hughey instigated a opera summer festival in the State of Brandenburg, situated between Berlin and Dresden. Here he has performed lesser known masterworks of composers Francesco Cavalli, Joseph Haydn, André Gretry, Georg Friedrich Händel, Wolfgang Amadé Mozart, Giovanni Paisiello and Reinhard Keiser. These performances are a platform for young exceptional vocal talent and many of the former participants now perform on many well-respected opera houses in Germany.

Office Location: SA 202A
Office Phone: 309/298-1729
Email: RL-Hughey@wiu.edu

[ Music ] [ College of Fine Arts and Communication ] [ Western Illinois University ] School of Music | 1 University Circle | Macomb, IL 61455 E-mail: music@wiu.edu | Phone: 309/298-1544 | Fax: 309-298-1968 Last updated: August 26, 2007