Ed Hughes commissioned for 50th anniversary celebration of Brighton Festival

Ed Hughes has been commissioned by Brighton Festival to write a 45 minute orchestral piece.

Hughes is collaborating with University of Sussex-based film maker, Lizzie Thynne, on a silent film called Brighton: Symphony of a City.

The world premiere will be performed at a concert at the Brighton Dome on Wednesday 11 May which will celebrate the 50th year of Brighton Festival.

The Orchestra of Sound and Light will perform Hughes’ composition alongside the film, which celebrates Brighton using contemporary and archive footage.

As well as the orchestra, music students from regional schools and colleges will be performing with rock musicians from the Brighton Institute of Modern Music.

“This new film depicts a day in the life of the city, darting back and forth through time to encompass archive film of the lost glories and contemporary events that have defined Brighton’s profile as the UK’s most vibrant location.”

Visit the Brighton Festival website to find out more about the event.

The project was inspired by Walther Ruttman’s 1927 silent film Berlin: Symphony of a Great City.

For more information on the creative process of the project, click here.

The collaboration is supported by Screen Archive South East, University of Brighton and University of Sussex and RVW Trust.

Ed Hughes lives in Lewes and lectures in Music at the University of Sussex.

He is represented by UYMP and Sound and Music.

His work as a composer has become known in recent years following major commissions from the City of London Festival (an opera titled The Birds) and the Brighton Festival (including a new score to Sergei Eisenstein's classic silent film Battleship Potemkin). 

Click here to read Hughes’ full biography.