Hugh's parents were both cathedral choristers at Rochester: unsurprisingly, his formative years were spent in the English choral tradition. At school, piano and clarinet were soon cast aside for drums and orchestral percussion.

Hugh has played for most, if not all, of the amateur ensembles in Leicestershire and beyond over the last fifteen-odd years, while still somehow managing to hold down a full-time job as a computer network engineer.

More recently, Hugh's focus has increasingly been on orchestral conducting, studying with Denise Ham (Royal Academy of Music), John Longstaff (Northern Ballet) and Robert Houlihan (RTE Symphony Orchestra, Ireland). He has conducted the student orchestra at Loughborough University since its inception in 2015, and is delighted to be conducting the Leicestershire SInfonia.