About the Conductor

Indra Hughes, December 2010
photo: Hans Weichselbaum
click to enlarge

Dr Indra Hughes, the Conductor of Musica Sacra, is widely recognized as one of the most distinguished musicians working in New Zealand today. Described by the New Zealand Listener in December 2011 as "New Zealand music's Richie McCaw"*, he received his early training at the cathedral in Blackburn, Lancashire, and at Oriel College, Oxford, where he was Organ Scholar and also took a degree in Law. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists and also holds the Gerald H Knight Memorial Prize for the highest marks in the RCO Choir Training Diploma examinations.

In March 2007 he became the first person in New Zealand to be awarded the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts (University of Auckland), with a thesis presenting new theories about the unfinished ending of Contrapunctus 14 from JS Bach's The Art of Fugue. In September 2007 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Dr Hughes held a number of important church music positions in England before moving to New Zealand in 1995 as Organist and Director of Music at the Anglican cathedral in Auckland. As well as being Conductor of Musica Sacra, he now works as a freelance conductor, organist, harpsichordist, teacher and speaker and he is a well known and popular broadcaster for Radio New Zealand. He is Organist and Choirmaster at All Saints, Ponsonby, Auckland.

Indra Hughes is an experienced recitalist, particularly known for his interpretations of Bach's The Art of Fugue, which he first performed in 2000, the Bach anniversary year. This concert had the distinction of being the only organ concert in Auckland ever to be completely sold out, with every seat taken well before the start of the concert. He took this work on tour around New Zealand in October 2002 and has performed it to much acclaim in England. He has also performed Bach's Goldberg Variations on the organ. Recitals have included acclaimed performances of the English Romantic repertoire and he has given recitals in prestigious venues such as Westminster Abbey, Coventry Cathedral, Southwark Cathedral, Sydney Cathedral, Melbourne Cathedral and Dunedin Town Hall.

He has directed the music for Her Majesty the Queen on three occasions, including the great service of thanksgiving for the opening of the completed cathedral in Auckland in 1995.

As Chairman of the Friends of the Auckland Town Hall Organ, Indra has been closely involved in the project to install the new Klais organ in Auckland Town Hall; Musica Sacra sang, and Indra Hughes was one of the organists, at the opening concert in March 2010; he also gave one of the official Inaugural Concerts in September 2010. In June 2010 Indra was elected Vice-President of the New Zealand Association of Organists, and President in June 2012.

Dr John Scott (left) and Dr Indra Hughes in rehearsal, August 2006

* Captain of the All Blacks, who won the Rugby World Cup in 2011.