Jack Hughes didn’t set out to run an orchestra. He set out to record some music.
It was a practical decision more than anything. Composing work was sporadic, the income wasn’t reliable, and he figured that if he wrote a new batch of tracks, recorded them with a string quartet, and gave his website a refresh, he’d at least be a bit further along. That was the plan.
What he didn’t expect was to enjoy the organising more than the recording.
“I sort of realised I almost enjoyed organising it more than the actual recording in some way, which was an interesting sort of discovery.”
That discovery, made somewhere in the middle of booking engineers, finding venues, and getting his music onto paper, is essentially how Northern Film Orchestra began. Not with a business plan or a gap in the market. Just a composer following an instinct that turned out to point somewhere completely different to where he thought he was going.
He started with guitar lessons at eight, learning from rock songs he’d heard on Kerrang. He wanted to make music for games, tried it, and realised it felt too much like an IT job. Pivoted to film music, and spent his early twenties checking tickets at Chetham’s School of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music, whilst trying to build a composing career on the side (as so many composers do).
“It was just very sporadic finding work,” he says. “At that point, I was just trying to find some kind of financial stability.”
What changed things wasn’t a breakthrough composing job. It was working in those concert halls, being around orchestral music every day, and eventually recording that string quartet session. Then someone at a sound design studio asked him a simple question: Have you thought about making that into a paid service other composers could use?
“I don’t know why, when he said it, I was just like, yeah, that’s a good idea. Let’s give it a go.”
The timing of that decision, it turned out, was both terrible and perfect.
Northern Film Orchestra’s first shared session took place in January 2020. The concept was simple. Most composers can’t afford to hire an orchestra for a full day, but they might be able to afford a slot within one, splitting the time and the cost between several composers. Think of it like a timeshare, Jack says, or ten people sharing a car. Same principle.
The launch went well. They had composers lined up for March. And then Covid happened.
“I got made redundant in both my jobs,” Jack says. “So I suddenly had like infinite time on my hands.”
What could have been a catastrophic start turned into an unexpected opportunity to do all the things — the website, the marketing, the business plan — that would have been rushed if life hadn’t changed. They started with 55 players, got forced down to a quartet by social distancing rules, and gradually worked their way back up to a full orchestra as restrictions eased.
“It was a bit of a trial by fire,” he says. “But since then we’ve just been full steam ahead.”
Six years on, Northern Film Orchestra is at an interesting point. The foundation is solid, the reputation is building. Now, the focus is on pushing through to the major studio projects: film, network TV, streaming. The competition at that level, Jack acknowledges, is Abbey Road.
But there’s a groundedness to how he talks about it. No bravado, no overselling. Just a quiet assessment of where they are, what they’re building towards, and an admission that it’ll probably take another eighteen months or two years to properly know how this chapter has gone.
“As of right now, I’m quietly confident,” he says.
The conversation goes well beyond Northern Film Orchestra though. We also get into the wider music industry. The royalty-free music model that gave composers an income for many years before subscription services arrived and changed everything almost overnight. The uncomfortable reality that sync licensing is now the only realistic path for most independent composers trying to earn a living. The strange economics of a business where everyone agrees the product is brilliant, and the only question is whether the budget is there to make it happen.
That kind of honesty runs through the whole conversation. Nothing is dressed up or glossed over. What it’s actually like to build something in music, what the industry looks like from inside, and where it’s heading. It’s all in there, said plainly and without agenda.
Which, given that’s exactly what these conversations are supposed to be, feels about right.
Watch or listen to all episodes via the Media Music Now Conversations page.
Jack is the co-founder of Northern Film Orchestra. Find out more at northernfilmorchestra.com
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