Hugh Morris

I’m a freelance writer, editor, copywriter and musician. I grew up in County Durham, before moving to Manchester in 2016. I now live in South London.

I mostly write about music and culture. My work has been published in The New York Times, The Guardian, The New Yorker, Pitchfork, The Face, Private Eye, Jazzwise, Bandcamp Daily, and VAN Magazine. I mainly focus on features, interviews, and investigations. I’ve been an editor at VAN since 2023.

I particularly enjoy interviewing musicians about their work. I’ve interviewed or profiled Thomas Ádes, Marshall Allen, Joan Armatrading, Nicola Benedetti, Lakecia Benjamin, George Benjamin, corto.alto, Victoria Canal, Nubya Garcia, Tigran Hamasyan, Danny L Harle, Stephen Hough, Shabaka Hutchings, Vijay Iyer, Steve Jones, Alexandre Kantorow, Michael League, Oliver Leith, Elaine Mitchener, Vasily Petrenko, Caroline Polachek, Rebecca Saunders, Maria Schneider, Éliane Radigue, and Immanuel Wilkins.

Alongside journalism work, I’ve been part of Manchester Collective, writing online guides to their programmes. Copywriting clients include 12 Ensemble, Apple Music, BBC Philharmonic, Brownswood, Delphian, Music in the Round, NMC, Pentatone, Platoon, Signum, Scottish Ensemble, Warner Classics and Whirlwind Recordings.

Outside of writing, I try to make as much music as I can. I sing, conduct, improvise, and play the trombone. I graduated from the University of Manchester with First Class (Hons) in Music in July 2019, receiving the Hargreaves Prize for Aesthetics.