Joe Hughes
Principal Trombone
Joe Hughes currently holds the position of Principal Trombone with the Greenville Symphony Orchestra (13th season). Over the last seventeen years he has performed and recorded with many orchestras throughout the Southeast including the Atlanta Symphony, Atlanta Opera, Atlanta Ballet, Savannah Symphony, Charleston Symphony, Alabama Symphony, Columbus Symphony, Macon Symphony, Huntsville Symphony, Tuscaloosa Symphony, Cobb Symphony, Gulf Coast Symphony and other smaller ensembles.
During the 1996 Olympics, Mr. Hughes recorded with the Atlanta Symphony and John Williams for the Olympic Ceremonies. He has performed with some of the world’s greatest musicians from the Jazz to Classical genre including Tony Bennett, Natalie Cole, Harry Conick Jr., Ray Charles, Burt Bacharach, Roger Williams, Moody Blues, Brian Wilson/Beach Boys, Bobby Venton, Bruce Hornsby and the Range, Empire Brass Quintet, Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perleman, Andre Watts, Isaac Stern and others. Mr. Hughes is in demand as a low brass clinician/coach and soloist throughout the Southeast having performed with many Honor Bands and Middle/High School Bands.
In 2004, Mr. Hughes performed the Creston - Fantasy for Trombone and Orchestra with the Greenville Symphony, in 2005, he performed the David – Concertino and Bizet – Habanera with the Foothills Philharmonic (SC) and in 2006 performed a commissioned solo, composer Aldo Forte, and world premiere of “Pastiche - Concerto Dances for Trombone and Band”, at the Southeastern United States Band Clinic in Troy, AL with the Troy Symphony Band.
Mr. Hughes is a founding member of the Piedmont Trombone Society, winners of the 2004 Kai Winding Jazz competition with the International Trombone Association. The PTS performed at the International Trombone Festival in Ithaca, NY and at the Tanglewood Music Festival in 2004. Mr. Hughes became an Edwards Artist/Clinician in 2003 and performs exclusively on Edwards trombones.
From 1999-2001 he was Low Brass instructor with the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute, a prestigious summer program that helps prepare High School students for college and the music performance world. During his three summers at OSAI, he soloed twice for NPR’s Performance Today, performing Frank Martin - Ballade and the Tenor Tuba solo in Holst - The Planets with the OSAI Symphony Orchestra. When Mr. Hughes lived in Atlanta, GA, he had a successful studio of forty private students teaching trombone, euphonium and tuba. Most of his students were accepted into music schools including Eastman, Indiana, Kentucky, Vanderbilt, SMU, University of South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama.
Joe is a founding member of the “Greenville Brass Quintet” (www.greenvillebrassquintet.com) and the trombone quartet “The Eighth Position” that’s based out of Greenville, SC. He has a seventeen-year-old son, Josef Haydn Jegg Hughes (Joey) who lives in Atlanta, GA. Joe and his wife, Rosemary, are members of Buncombe Street United Methodist Church where they are Co-Directors of the Buncombe Street Youth Orchestra and Rosemary is the Director of Music and Arts. Rosemary and Joe have a five month old daughter, Amelia Evelyn Hughes. Mr. Hughes is a First Lieutenant in the United States Army Reserve.