Avoidance Tactics by Curtis K. Hughes

Hughes is a Boston-based, freelance composer, as well as a music instructor who has taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the New England Conservatory of Music. His music is inspired by many of the avant-garde pioneers of 20th century concert music, as well as by the free jazz of John Coltrane, Cecil Taylor, Joe Maneri and others. He attempts to find common ground among these diverse traditions, resulting in a style which is restless and rhythmically driven. Nearly every one of his compositions also reflects an obsessive interest in cylical rhythmic patterns that derive loosely from Balinese gamelan music.

His music has been played by the Callithumpian Consort, The Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the Firebird ensemble, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies, the Indiana University New Music Ensemble, the Radius Ensemble and the Yesaroun' Duo, among many others. He has received numerous awards, including the Boston Japan Society's Toru Takemitsu Prize, awarded annually to one of the "most promising" young composers in the greater Boston area. A graduate of Oberlin College and Conservatory and of the New England Conservatory, his primary teacher has been composer Lee Hyla, and he has also studied with Evan Ziporyn and Michael Gandolfi. His composition AVOIDANCE TACTICS #1 received praise in the New York Times as a "fiery work" with "great moments of interaction," and his orchestral piece "Gestations"(1999) was lauded by the Boston Globe as "colorfully scored," and by New Music Connoisseur as "a most worthy offering." Recent events have included the premiere of Myopia II for 12 saxophones as the centerpiece of the centennial festival (2004) for Boston's Jordan Hall, and a program of all new political music, "National Insecurity," first given at MIT's Killian Hall in collaboration with composer David T. Little

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