He became a popular concert pianist in Australia and was a founding member of the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music, where he taught for fifty years.
In 1904, at the age of twelve, Hutchens had the opportunity to demonstrate his talents after his piano teacher arranged for him to play for the virtuoso Ignaz Paderewski, who was then touring New Zealand.
The following year, at the age of thirteen, Hutchens travelled alone to London to attend the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied piano and composition with Tobias Matthay and Frederick Corder.
He decided to stay, and in 1915 was offered a position by Henri Verbrugghen as a founding professor with the newly formed New South Wales Conservatorium of Music, which he accepted.
In the 1962 Queen's Birthday Honours he was appointed an Officer (OBE) of the Order of the British Empire for "services to Music in the State of New South Wales.
"[3] Scholarships in composition are awarded annually in his name to students under 25, and his portrait, by Cornish painter Stanhope Forbes, is held by the Sydney Conservatorium to which he devoted so much of his working life.