Hughes, Anthony George ('Tony')

by Linde Lunney

Hughes, Anthony George ('Tony') (1928–2007), musician and university professor, was born 6 July 1928, in south Dublin, the son of George Hughes, an optical technician, and his wife Lilian (née Jones); he had three younger sisters. Brought up in Donore Road, off the South Circular Road, he attended Synge Street Christian Brothers' School until 1945, and then went to UCD to study music; during his student days, he supported himself by playing the piano in a musical trio in the Gaiety Theatre.

His musical ability was phenomenal, being recognised first in private piano lessons when he was very young, and then developed in the Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM) from the age of nine. He won the Senior Coulson Exhibition entrance scholarship in the RIAM in 1942, when he was 14. He studied there for twelve years, with notable teachers including John F. Larchet (qv), taking classes in pianoforte, organ, harmony and composition, and won every RIAM cup, scholarship and award for which he was eligible. He also won many awards in feiseanna in Dublin and elsewhere; in one year (1946), he won the Hamilton Harty Cup, the Esposito Cup and the first Harold White prize (for exceptional talent) awarded by the Dublin feis ceoil committee, providing funds to assist with his musical education. In 1947 he became a licentiate of the RIAM, and thereafter taught pianoforte in the academy. He graduated from UCD in 1949, with a first-class B.Mus. degree.

While still a student, Hughes made a considerable reputation as a soloist in Dublin concerts and in regular broadcasts on Radio Éireann, and in 1951 played in London's Wigmore Hall. In 1952 he was awarded the NUI travelling studentship, the first time it had been awarded in music, and in early 1953, he started two years of postgraduate studies at the Akademie für Darstellende Kunst in Vienna, where his teachers, including the distinguished Bruno Seidlhofer, acknowledged the Dubliner's striking ability in interpreting the works of Bach and other eighteenth- and nineteenth-century composers. Hughes returned to a professorship in the RIAM in 1954, and in 1955 was awarded the D.Mus. degree and became an assistant to Larchet in the UCD department of music. He was very much Larchet's protégé, and three years later, succeeded the older man to become one of UCD's youngest professors, aged 30.

Charles Acton (qv), the occasionally carping music critic, complained in the Irish Times in November 1956 that Hughes's performances in concerts after his return from Vienna had been very disappointing, and even hinted that the young musician might not after all deserve a career as a soloist. Hughes had never been a relaxed performer, and such hostile criticism possibly contributed to his nervousness on stage. Though he continued to give concerts with the Radio Éireann orchestra through the early 1960s, the focus of his career altered as time went on. He did not publish much, but his teaching responsibilities increased as the UCD department expanded to cover more musical subjects and attracted more students, many of whom acknowledged Hughes's support and encouragement in their subsequent successful careers. He was an inspiring and demanding mentor, training students in all aspects of what he saw as the tradition and craft of musicianship. For Hughes, teaching in the widest sense was a fulfilling activity; he gave many extramural classes and lectures in the Royal Dublin Society (RDS) and in music appreciation societies and other groups round the country, on all aspects of music.

A significant figure in musical culture and in cultural organisations, he served as judge in countless competitions in music festivals, and for many years was influential in the music committee of the RDS, at that time the only body putting on large-scale entertainment events in Ireland; Hughes helped to plan and organise the notable concerts that brought many international musicians to Dublin audiences. He loved opera, and put a great deal of effort into the productions of the Dublin Grand Opera Society, as its president for many years, and was also a trustee of Wexford Festival Opera. A member of the cultural relations committee of the Department of Foreign Affairs, he was founding chairman of the Irish Church Music Association, a member of the council of trustees of the National Library of Ireland from 1969, and chairman of the trustees from 1981. He retired from UCD in 1991, after the unusually long career of thirty-three years as a professor. His contributions to music were recognised with the award of the Arnold Bax medal (1956), and the decoration of commander in the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (1981) for his efforts to promote opera and his regular lectures at the Italian Institute of Culture in Dublin; he was also made an honorary fellow of the RIAM (1990).

Anthony Hughes was in increasingly poor health for the last fifteen years of his life, and died on 30 November 2007 in Dublin; he was buried in Dean's Grange cemetery. He was survived by his son and three daughters, and by his wife Nuala (née Mullen), whom he married in St Patrick's cathedral, Dundalk, Co. Louth, in August 1960.