Jonathan Hughes
BIOGRAPHY
Jonathan Hughes is a first year Master of Music student at Stellenbosch University, researching the work of the organ-building firm G. W. Price & Son through the Africa Open Institute for Music, Research and Innovation. His current research, supervised by Prof. Stephanus Muller and Dr Erik Dippenaar, is centred on the work of the organ building firm G. W. Price & Son, unpacking the ways in which the firm’s work contributed to white settler identities in South Africa between 1883 and 1924. In a more general sense, his work is interested in interrogating the colonial legacy of South Africa’s pipe organ heritage. His recently published article, Addressing the pipework in South Africa’s oldest playable pipe organ: a materialist-political history, was the winning essay for the Journal of the Musical Arts in Africa’s undergraduate essay writing competition (2023). This work was drawn from his fourth-year thesis, which was written under the supervision of Dominic Daula and in partial fulfilment of his Bachelor of Music degree (cum laude) conferred by Rhodes University.
