Jamie Hughes, Songwriting

Jamie Hughes, Songwriting

Jamie enjoys a varied career, encompassing classical music, pop, folk and filmmaking. As a songwriter, singer and guitarist in a band he has had two singles and an album released by an independent record label, Boy Scout Recordings, based in New York. He has performed on TV and radio, had a song featured on a major BBC advert and maintains a publishing deal with EMI, continuing to have his music used across various media. His band once won a national battle-of-the-bands competition, judged by Ian McCulloch (of Echo and the Bunnymen) which led to a management deal and recording at the legendary RAK studios in London. He has headlined many top music venues in the UK and also written and helped produce songs for other artists, including Welsh artist Kizzy Crawford and the actor and musician Iwan Rheon (Game of Thrones).

As a violinist, Jamie regularly performs with the Bath Pump Room Trio (the longest-established resident ensemble in Europe), leads a ceilidh band and freelances and teaches in schools in and around Bath. He also taught violin at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama junior department for twelve years. He has performed with some of the world’s leading musicians, including Maxim Vengerov (from whom Jamie also received a masterclass at the 25th Menuhin Festival), Joshua Bell and Rachel Podger. Recent performances also include performing solo mandolin in Vivaldi’s mandolin concerto at the Frome Festival.

As a filmmaker, Jamie has written and directed short films that have been nominated for awards and screened at film festivals around the world.

As a child, Jamie was a chorister at Hampton Court Chapel Royal, played violin on BBC TV and was selected as one of five young violinists from the UK to travel to Japan to perform as part of the 1998 Winter Olympics. He studied at the Royal College of Music junior department, before completing a Bachelor of Music degree at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama with First-Class Honours. He was then awarded a scholarship to undertake a Post-Graduate Diploma, also at the RWCMD, gaining a Distinction and the highest mark of his year. A highlight at music college was leading the college orchestra for Tchaikovsky’s first Piano Concerto in a performance at St. David’s Hall, with his future wife, Lily, playing the solo.