Hugh Livingston

Hugh Livingston graduated cum laude from Yale with a B.A. in music in 1990.[3] He earned his D.M.A. from UC San Diego and his M.F.A. from Cal Arts, studying under Erika Duke-Kirkpatrick.[3] Livingston won the Yale Bach Society Prize, first prize in the Music of Japan Today competition, and first prize in the Crane School of Music competition.[3]

After graduating from Yale in 1990, Livingston relocated to San Diego, California.[3] He devoted much of his career to a composer/performer collaboration called Strings and Machines, initially a Yale research project marrying cello and electronics.[3] Livingston is credited as a cellist on the original motion picture soundtracks of Joyride (1997), Blade II (2002), Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), I, Robot (2004), Hellboy (2004), and Flight of the Phoenix (2004) as well as the computer game SimCity 4.[3][4] He is referred to as the American counterpart of Dutch cellist Frances-Marie Uitti.[3][2] His expertise lies in the interpretation of contemporary Asian music, leading to the discovery of more than 100 different pizzicato techniques.[5]

Livingston has performed both classical and contemporary repertoires as a solo artist, collecting awards and mentions as a concertizing cellist and innovator.[3][2] He additionally performed as a member of three ensembles including Mapa Mundi, The Orbis Factor, and The Seven Saties, and serves as director of both ARTSHIP Recordings and Strings and Machines, organizing concerts and educational activities.[3][1] Livingston has premiered works by composers Jonathan Harvey, Morton Subotnick, and Roger Reynolds and collaborated with Japanese instrumentalists Philip Gelb and Shoko Hikage.[3] In 2014, he became the fourth artist-in-residence for Dumbarton Oaks.[2]

Livingston was raised in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he attended Tyson Middle School and West High School.[6] He played cello in the Knoxville Youth Symphony Orchestra with fellow classmates Jami Rogers (clarinetist and future New York Metropolitan Opera singer) and Benjamin Wade (trumpet player and future conductor). Livingston plays a 1928 Fagnola cello made in Montiglio, Italy.[1]

• Strings & Machines (1996)[3]
• Tenors, Echoes and Wolves (From the Underground 1829-1998) (1997)[3]
• Living in Fire (2000)[3]
• Wold: A Little Girl Dreams of Taking the Veil (2001)[3]
• Mark Applebaum: Catfish (2003)[3]
• Roger Reynolds: Process and Passion (2004)[3]
• Earth Music: Ten Years of Meridian Music - Composers in Performance (2010)[3]