J. Edmund Hughes:  

Hi and thanks for stopping by. I hope this finds you healthy and happy. After 41 years of teaching, mostly in Arizona, I am now living in Gig Harbor, WA, with my wife (Carole) and our two dogs (Murphy and Maggie). My last teaching position was at Chandler-Gilbert Community College - and I could not have had a better place to finish my full-time teaching career (even though I "officially" retired in 2003). At CGCC I taught choir, conducting, music theory, aural perception, recruited for the Music Department and organized two choral festivals per year. We had some outstanding students, and choirs at CGCC! I was also the Director of Music at Velda Rose United Methodist Church in Mesa for 20 years. I continue to visit the local schools, work with their choirs, adjudicate choral festivals, direct honor choirs, compose, and am assisting with the Chapel Hill Presbyterian Chancel Choir. As much as I loved teaching, it is now becoming more and more "comfortable" to visit/rehearse a choir, and not have to worry about the other "stuff"(administrative, attendance, fund raising, etc.). I am still running, weight lifting and biking...gotta balance off the beer somehow. This year (2014) I was asked to direct a choir at the University of Puget Sound - it is great getting back into the classroom again, and the students are fabulous! Back tracking from my "early years" at Tucson HS), when I left Tucson High(1984) I went to Palo Verde HS for one year and then finished my doctorate in choral conducting at U of A. After receiving my degree and three teaching jobs later, we moved to Mesa and I began my 13 year tenure at Phoenix College. We had quite a bit of success with the choir and I also began choral arranging - I now have 30 published choral arrangements and more in the works. Jeanne and I have 3 kids (Brandon, Allison and Lauren). Brandon, after graduating from Red Mountain HS was my student at CGCC...and later graduated from UofA. . He was choir president at Red Mountain HS his senior year and made Regionals 3 years and was 4th chair in All-State his senior year. He is currently working at Mayo Clinic (Patient Services) and has his certificate to be a Personal Trainer. He is also in training for his first body building competition. Alli was a "softball stud" - she played from elementary school through high school. Her All-Star teams won some state championships and made it to the World Series in 2004 where they finished 6th in the world. She was team captain of her school team and during the following season, she was diagnosed with cancer. Thankfully, it was detected early, and although she went through some painful chemo reactions, she continued to play softball when she could. Her senior she had her final rounds of chemo, but was strong enough to make the varsity. That year, her softball team won the Arizona State 5A Championship. (Exactly one year earlier, she was in the hospital as a result of a chemo reaction and was barely able to move.) She was chosen "Most Inspirational Senior" by her senior class and was given the "Heart of the Lion" award from Red Mountain HS. She was also the first recipient of a Red Mountain choir award estab...Expand for more