Curtis K. Hughes is an acclaimed composer of concert music, and a Boston-based music educator.
His album “Tulpa,” a Twin Peaks-themed collection of chamber and ensemble music, is available now from New Focus Recordings.
“Curtis… has composed a unique body of works which demonstrates both the depth of his listening and his ability to synthesize an extremely wide range of influences into an extremely personal and deeply moving sound world.”
- Frank J. Oteri, New Music Box
FEATURED UPCOMING EVENTS
December 9, 2025 - Curtis co-curates a set of contemporary music with cellist Stephen Marotto, followed by a set of improvised music as part of the Point01Percent contemporary series.
including Curtis’s “mahood” (for solo cello) and works by Liza Lim, Kerrith Livengood, Jonathan Harvey & James Tenney, followed by an improv set with Taylor Ho Bynum, Pandelis Karayorgis, Ken Filiano & Eric Rosenthal
7:30 PM EST - The Lilypad [doors at 7 PM]
1353 Cambridge St, Cambridge MA
December 11, 2025 - Semiosis Quartet performs an excerpt from Curtis’s “String Quartet #2” on their first public concert of the season.
along with music by Stefanie Lubkowski & a performance of Lee Hyla’s “Howl,” featuring special guest Brian Church
7:30 PM EST - Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center
41 Second St, Cambridge MA
March 15, 2026 - New England Philharmonic gives the premiere performance of Curtis’s 2005 “Symphony in 3 Movements,” more than 20 years after its composition.
along with premieres by Jason Huffman, Daniel Godfrey, & Carlos Carrillo
3:00 PM EST - Tsai Performance Center @ Boston University
685 Commonwealth Ave, Boston MA
RECENT NEW RELEASE…
RAHA duo’s debut album “Swirl,” released 7/19/24 on New Focus Recordings, features the premiere recording of “dept. of levitation studies” for viola and piano.
Originally available exclusively as part of a New Gallery Concert Series online event in January 2023, the neo-surrealist art movie “TULPA,” co-directed by Curtis K. Hughes and Ariana X. Hughes (based around the Curtis K. Hughes ensemble composition “tulpa”), is now available here and on YouTube. Featuring the artwork of Ola Aksan and performances by vocalist/actress Rose Hegele among many others, the 4-movement music video pays tribute to filmmaker David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks: The Return.”
2023 New Video Release: TULPA
New Release: 4/16/2021
Tulpa is a fascinating retrospective of twenty-two years of Curtis K. Hughes’s creative work, ranging from a brief marimba solo to a major work for large ensemble. Elegant in form, restless, and expressively rich, these seven works performed by some of Boston’s most outstanding artists, reveal Hughes to be an imaginative and deeply talented composer.
Other releases featuring music by Curtis K. Hughes
Transient Canvas: Sift
The acclaimed debut album on New Focus Recordings by the bass clarinet & marimba duo of Amy Advocat and Matt Sharrock includes Hughes’s Vestibule III.
Sarah Bob: …nobody move…
Pianist Sarah Bob’s album on Avie Records features works commissioned for the New Gallery Concert Series, including Hughes’s “insidiously spiky“(Fanfare) AVOIDANCE TACTICS #1 and a selection of his “at once pithy and tangible” (Gramophone) Vestibulations.
Benjamin Sung & Jihye Chang: Flux Flummoxed
This razor-sharp virtuoso duo’s album on Albany Records features Hughes’s politically charged insult to injury.
Say it Ain’t So, Joe (with Guerilla Opera)
Premiere recording of Curtis K. Hughes’s 2009 surreal chamber opera centering on the 2008 Vice Presidential Debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden.
Danger Garden (with the Firebird Ensemble)
2012 album of chamber, large ensemble and vocal works by Curtis K. Hughes, including danger garden, The Beck Journals (Vols 1 & 2), Myopia 2 and National Insecurity.
Avoidance Tactics
2003 album of chamber music by Curtis K. Hughes includes AVOIDANCE TACTICS #1 (original version), String Quartet #1, Quartet for Saxophones, Salt in the Wound and more.