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Hugh Morris on Muck Rack

Hugh Morris

Verified
(He/Him)
Durham, London, Manchester
As seen in: VAN Magazine, MSN UK, The New York Times, Business Insider, Financial Times, The Guardian, The Independent (UK), The Telegraph, Yahoo Canada, Yahoo News UK, Yahoo Singapore and
Covers:  Music, Culture, Politics
@vanmusicmag editor and writer elsewhere. Loves a typo / views: model's own. hugh@van-verlag.com
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Finishing Bach's Organ Music, With Help From 118 Composers

Finishing Bach's Organ Music, With Help From 118 Composers

The New York Times — A new project completes Bach's plans for his kaleidoscopic "Orgelbüchlein," with a 21st-century touch. Send any friend a story As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share.
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Abel Selaocoe Finds a Home in Improvisation

Abel Selaocoe Finds a Home in Improvisation

The New York Times — The classically trained South African cellist draws on musical traditions from across the globe for his debut album, "Where is Home (Hae Ke Kae)." Send any friend a story As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share.
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Fergus McCreadie interview: "Jazz is kind of a folk music in itself"

Fergus McCreadie interview: "Jazz is kind of a folk music in itself"

Jazzwise — The first time Fergus McCreadie made the jazz world sit up and take note was in 2018. Watching back footage of the pianist blasting through two characterful originals at the final of the BBC Young Jazz Musician competition it's easy to see why.
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Shida Shahabi on finding the right space to compose, field recordings & sampling

Shida Shahabi on finding the right space to compose, field recordings & sampling

spitfireaudio.com — When Shida Shahabi eventually realized that all she really wanted to do was write her own music, her aim was simple: "to create simplicity - a safe space where I could understand how I want to work in as simple a way as possible."
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William Herschel Is Famous for Science. What About His Music?

William Herschel Is Famous for Science. What About His Music?

The New York Times — The accomplished astronomer was, one historian said, "the Einstein of his time." But before he surveyed the sky, he was a prolific musician. Within the four-square opening of William Herschel's Symphony No. 8 is a phrase that sounds like one of the delicately reorchestrated pop songs in "Bridgerton."
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'Pistol' Tells Steve Jones's Story. With a Touch of Showbiz.

'Pistol' Tells Steve Jones's Story. With a Touch of Showbiz.

The New York Times — A new limited series is based on a memoir by the Sex Pistols guitarist. Just don't confuse it with a documentary, he says. LONDON - For Steve Jones, direct has always been best. The Sex Pistols guitarist is known for rejecting what he describes as fancy "Beatle chords" in favor of a sound without frills, and for drunken retorts on prime time British television.
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Stories through music: Manchester Camerata Hidden Histories

Stories through music: Manchester Camerata Hidden Histories

musicteachermagazine.co.uk — Manchester Camerata and Lavender Rodriguez have been collaborating with school students on a project focused on underrepresented composers and the compositional process. Hugh Morris attended a Hidden Histories session to find out more. One of the few genuine positives of the lockdown period has been education's interrogation of its historical biases.
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RLPO/Hindoyan review - shock but not enough awe in Bluebeard concert staging

RLPO/Hindoyan review - shock but not enough awe in Bluebeard concert staging

The Guardian — ne of Domingo Hindoyan 's stated ambitions when he took on the chief conductorship of the Liverpool Philharmonic was to get the orchestra performing more opera. A concert performance of Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle was the first glimpse of what's to come operatically during his tenure. "Where is the stage - outside or within?"
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Music for the Dark at an Experimental Festival

Music for the Dark at an Experimental Festival

The New York Times — British fans gathered to enjoy an overnight program of alternative classical music - a loose, soothing genre that many have discovered during the pandemic. GATESHEAD, England - Early on Saturday evening, the final strains of Gavin Bryars's looping "Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet" faded into silence at a vast concert hall here.
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Melissa Aldana: "It's about asking: 'who am I, as a female from South America?'"

Melissa Aldana: "It's about asking: 'who am I, as a female from South America?'"

Jazzwise — Melissa Aldana begins by offering me a tour of her flat, a Through The Keyhole moment for the Zoom generation. Apologising for the messiness of the place as she carries our video call down the hallway, she informs me that her renovation is halfway there, having moved into her Brooklyn apartment during last year's lockdown.
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How mundane gossip took over the internet

How mundane gossip took over the internet

The Face — But why does gossiping feel so good? In the introduction to podcast Normal Gossip - in which host Kelsey McKinney interviews average Joe Bloggs' about low-stakes scandals in their lives - guest Virgie Tovar describes it as a feeling.
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How mundane gossip took over the internet

How mundane gossip took over the internet

The Face — But why does gossiping feel so good? In the introduction to podcast Normal Gossip - in which host Kelsey McKinney interviews average Joe Bloggs' about low-stakes scandals in their lives - guest Virgie Tovar describes it as a feeling.
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Emma Rawicz: compose me a rainbow

Emma Rawicz: compose me a rainbow

Jazzwise — The ability to 'see music in colour' or 'see colour in sound' has a long history among performers and composers. Hugh Morris meets young saxophonist Emma Rawicz, the latest in a distinguished line of jazz synaesthetes Emma Rawicz sees colours in sound.
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BBCPhil/Wigglesworth review - Vaughan Williams celebrations open with style but not enough substa...

BBCPhil/Wigglesworth review - Vaughan Williams celebrations open with style but not enough substa...

The Guardian — This year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. Manchester features prominently in celebrations of his music over the coming months. The Hallé and the BBC Philharmonic share a complete cycle of his symphonies, and the latter orchestra, under Mark Wigglesworth, kicked off proceedings this weekend with a programme examining two essential Vaughan Williams themes - war and the pastoral.
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The Meticulous Curation of Another Timbre

The Meticulous Curation of Another Timbre

Bandcamp Daily — LABEL PROFILE The Meticulous Curation of Another Timbre By Hugh Morris · February 25, 2022 In a suburb to the southwest of Sheffield, Simon Reynell lives with his huge music collection. As he describes it, there's not much to see, "save for a chaotic spare room full of boxes of CDs and a couple of computers."
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With a click of a baton: ConductIT online conducting course

With a click of a baton: ConductIT online conducting course

musicteachermagazine.co.uk — More and more music teachers find themselves conducting orchestras, choirs, bands and ensembles as part of their working lives, but how many have had formal training? Hugh Morris takes a look at ConductIT, a free online conducting course for educators and budding baton-wavers alike.
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The Pitch of Living

The Pitch of Living

VAN Magazine — "I've been interested in the 432 Hz conspiracy theories for a while," began an email from my editor at VAN. "Would you like to spend some time using the 432 Player, a website that adjusts all your music to 432 Hz?" I consider myself a very online person, and yet, through a mixture of willful [...]
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Melissa Aldana 12 Stars

Melissa Aldana 12 Stars

Jazzwise — It’s a brave move indeed to make a label debut as introspective as Aldana does here, but equally remarkable is how 12 Stars manages it without ever feeling forced or leaving the listener overwrought. Aldana’s first leader disc on Blue Note already feels like an album of the year contender. And yet, it never sounds particularly sure of itself. It’s a music of chattering sentences and few full stops; when layers are peeled away, its bedrock of quiet hums and snuffles emerges. Aldana’s sweet-singing high register has long been a strength of her playing, but here it takes on a vulnerable quality as fragility becomes a key theme. There’s a nervous energy running through the band that’s uncomfortable and thrilling.
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Barney McAll Precious Energy

Barney McAll Precious Energy

Jazzwise —
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'I'm a crazy fanatic of the music'

'I'm a crazy fanatic of the music'

livpost.co.uk — By Joshi Herrmann and Hugh Morris I meet Liverpool's new South American star in a functional boardroom in the Georgian Quarter. He's wearing a dark red jumper and blue trousers, with a Liverpool Philharmonic lanyard around his neck. On the streets outside, his winning smile beams down from posters announcing his arrival in the city and calling him "Liverpool's latest signing".
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Marshall Allen, At 97, Broadens the Arkestra's Cosmos

Marshall Allen, At 97, Broadens the Arkestra's Cosmos

Bandcamp Daily — Marshall Allen, At 97, Broadens the Arkestra's Cosmos By Hugh Morris · February 10, 2022 The light is orange, the shutters are closed, and the line is crackly as Marshall Allen and Tyler Mitchell squeeze into view from a dark room of the Arkestra House in Germantown, Philadelphia.
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For a Composer at 90, There's Nothing but Time

For a Composer at 90, There's Nothing but Time

The New York Times — For decades, Éliane Radigue has created a great deal of slow, very minimal, mostly electronic music. Éliane Radigue lives and works in a second-floor apartment in the Montparnasse neighborhood of Paris. A weeping fig tree looms above her head; across the loft-like room are three large windows adorned with house plants.
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Sax star Immanuel Wilkins: 'Hands are a symbol of praise - but they are also lifted up at police'

Sax star Immanuel Wilkins: 'Hands are a symbol of praise - but they are also lifted up at police'

The Guardian — mmanuel Wilkins appears on a video call from his flat in Brooklyn, looking intently at the laptop perched on top of his Fender Rhodes keyboard. A column of light bounces off his forehead, and his red circular glasses magnify his eyes ever so slightly, making him look particularly absorbed in conversation.
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Is Manchester's 'Acid House Smash Hits' coming back to life?

Is Manchester's 'Acid House Smash Hits' coming back to life?

The Mill — Dear members - today's story is by longtime Mill contributor Hugh Morris, who has written about music and culture for The New York Times and The Guardian. Today, he trains his sights on the story of Jockey Slut, a "Manchester-based national magazine" - or at least that was the plan - that irreverently covered dance music and club culture.
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