Hodges sang as a treble in Christ Church Cathedral Choir and in that capacity recorded Bach Motets (on ASV) as well as performing in Benjamin Britten's War Requiem with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle, in concert in the Royal Festival Hall and Birmingham Town Hall, as well as on the EMI recording of the work.
He also performed with the choir in the Penderecki St Luke Passion in the BBC Proms, with the composer conducting: the concert was televised.
He also took lessons with Yonty Solomon and, as a Lieder accompanist, with Geoffrey Parsons and Roger Vignoles; he studied composition at school with Michael Finnissy, and at University of Cambridge with Robin Holloway and Alexander Goehr.
Many composers have written works for Hodges to perform, notably Elliott Carter (Dialogues for Piano and Orchestra, 2003),[2] Salvatore Sciarrino, James Clarke, Michael Finnissy, Jeroen Speak, Konrad Boehmer, Harrison Birtwistle and Betsy Jolas.
126, Suzanne Yanko wrote that "his performance was engrossing... What we heard was an authoritative, assured and, at times, stunning rendition of the bagatelles that brought out their many contrasts.
His first CD was of the complete piano works of Bill Hopkins, and he has also recorded music by John Adams, Michael Finnissy, Harrison Birtwistle, Beat Furrer, Justin Connolly, Brian Ferneyhough, Elliott Carter, Konrad Boehmer and many others.
Hodges performs in duo with the Finnish cellist Anssi Karttunen, and with German pianist Michael Wendeberg with whom he has recorded Boulez's two books of Structures.
[5] Hodges first met Birtwistle in 1987, at the Queen Elisabeth Hall foyer, as recounted in an interview with Tom Service: It was in 1987 - I just went up to him and asked him if he had heard any news about the composer Morton Feldman, with whom I'd studied at Dartington the previous year, and who I knew was very ill.
In his speech accepting a British Composer Award for Gigue Machine Birtwistle said of Hodges: "[He] is becoming like my Peter Pears.
[10] Subsequently, Rihm composed a new version of Zwei Linien for him, which he premiered and performed in the Berliner Philharmonie, Lucerne Festival and elsewhere.
Of their collaboration, Hodges has written: In rehearsal for a performance of Sotto Voce II – the piece Wolfgang wrote for the Busoni Competition, and which I had the honour of premiering – he provided an exemplary example of at least one kind of performer-composer relationship.
At one point the conductor turned to Wolfgang and asked (over my head, literally and figuratively) whether I was “allowed” to play a certain phrase in the way I was choosing to.