Robert Hughes (American composer)

Robert Grove Hughes (1933–2022) was an American composer, conductor, bassoonist and music scholar based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He was known for his wide-ranging artistic interests—extending to poetry, performance art and social commentary—and advocacy of contemporary, often experimental music. San Francisco Chronicle critic Joshua Kosman described Hughes as a visionary and "musical Zelig" who "played a key role in a vast range of ambitious and influential musical projects." In the 1960s, Hughes co-founded the long-running Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and co-founded and led the award-winning Oakland Symphony Youth Orchestra. In subsequent decades he co-founded and led the Arch Ensemble for Experimental Music with baritone vocalist Thomas Buckner and co-directed the performance group MA FISH CO with his wife, artist Margaret Fisher.

In his work as a composer and conductor, critics noted Hughes's fluency in an array of different styles, from overtly avant-garde to accessible, and his ambitious, adventurous programs. He wrote commissioned works for the San Francisco Symphony, Oakland Symphony, Cabrillo Festival and San Francisco Ballet and contributed scores to the Hollywood movie Never Cry Wolf and to James Broughton's The Golden Positions. Hughes collaborated with diverse artists including Lou Harrison, Laurie Anderson, Frank Zappa and Ezra Pound, and for more than three decades was a bassoonist in various Bay Area orchestras and groups. He died in Emeryville, California at age 88 on August 11, 2022.