Biography
Hugh Pascall
was born in Nottingham in 1983. He began learning the piano at the family home aged 4 with the help of his extremely musical parents, who brought him up into an environment immersed in music of the Baroque, Classical and Romantic periods; the latter of which his father, Robert, is a world leading expert and Brahms scholar. The opportunity arose for Hugh to take up a second instrument aged 9, when he chose the trumpet. Music was very much a part of Hugh’s extra curricular life and he progressed through the grades on both instruments, entering many competitions as a soloist and in duets with his sisters and parents. He joined two of the leading local youth ensembles; the Nottingham Youth Orchestra and the Brassery. It was as a member of the Brassery Big Band that Hugh discovered his interest for improvisation; hearing the then tutor, Nathan Bray, performing an incredible trumpet solo while guesting with the band on a gig.
“I remember sitting on 4th trumpet, right at the end of the line, and being in awe of Nathan’s amazing lead playing coming from the other end. I must have been about 14 and I’d never really heard it done like that. Then he took this solo on Salt Peanuts [by Dizzy Gillespie] that just blew me away. I vividly remember that being the first time I realised the enormity of possibilities on my instrument in jazz and I instantly fell in love with the genre.” After this gig Hugh began taking lessons in jazz theory and improvisation with Nathan alongside his classical lessons with Leslie Pattison and Brenda May.
While studying for his A levels, Hugh joined NYJO (the National Youth Jazz Orchestra) and applied to music college to study jazz at degree level. He took auditions at the Guildhall and the Royal Academy. On the merit of his audition at the Academy, he accepted a full entrance scholarship.
Hugh spent the first two years of his BMus course at the Academy, learning with Steve Waterman, Martin Speake, Gerard Presencer, Barak Schmool and Milton Mermikides as his core tutors. Many renowned jazz musicians came into the Academy to deliver masterclasses, including Lee Konitz, Dave Holland and Jeff Ballard. The course provided an all-round and broad education of improvisation, composition, history, aural skills and performance experience in a multitude of different ensembles. After two years, Hugh then took his third year at the Paris Conservatoire (CNSMDP) on the Erasmus exchange program. Paris was an opportunity to develop his interest in composition and free improvisation, studying with Rick Margitza, Francois Theberge, Glenn Ferris and Ricardo Del Fra. Hugh became a member of a number of ensembles with fellow students and joined the Free Breathing Orchestra, a Big Band which toured Belgium and France in 2003. Hugh then returned to the Academy for his fourth and final year and was welcomed back to college by Sir Elton John, who presented him with the Sir Elton John Scholarship, leading to appearances on BBC London television and radio. Hugh then formed a quartet with James Allsopp, Tim Giles and Ivo Neame, playing Hugh’s own compositions. This quartet was used for his final recital at the Academy, where he finished the degree with a first class BMus with Honours and LRAM teaching diploma. The music college experience ended on a high note, with Hugh winning the Academy’s Scott Fulbritzer Award for Jazz at the degree ceremony, a prestigious jazz prize for outstanding achievement.
The decision to open a recording studio came in 2005. 10 months were spent single-handedly refurbishing a suitable venue; hard work that has paid off, as this is where Hugh now practices, rehearses, teaches, writes and records his own works.
Since leaving the Academy and opening the studio, Hugh has been working as a professional musician; writing bespoke compositions to film and for TV, working as an audio engineer and producer, teacher, session musician and live performer. A notable performance being that of an especially written jazz Trumpet Concerto with the Royal Northern College Symphony and Nottingham Youth Orchestras by Paul Isaac Franks, taking place at the Royal Northern College and Royal Concert Hall in 2006. He has also played at London jazz venues including The Pizza Express, The 606 Club, The 100 Club, The Oxford, The Vortex, Royal Festival Hall and Ronnie Scott’s.