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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES - Long Biographical Sketch

Frederick Hohman is best known as as a concert organist, but also as a sought-after audio producer / engineer, as the producer / host of an organ-music television series, and most recently, as a composer.  
 
Fred was born in St. Louis, Missouri to parents who were both professional musicians. He entered the University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music in 1974 as an undergraduate scholarship student in the organ class of David Craighead, where through 1990, he had earned Eastman's Performer's Certificate, as well as Mus.B., M.M. and D.M.A. degrees in Performance and Literature.   In 1984, he was named First Prize Winner in both the Clarence Mader and Arthur Poister national organ-playing competitions.  Since 1984, he has toured the USA with organ concerts, workshop and lecture recitals.  His tours have taken him throughout the USA, to the Caribbean, Australia, the UK and Finland.  In addition to appearing before regional and national conventions of The American Guild of Organists, The Organ Historical Society, and The American Institute of Organbuilders, he has appeared at several noteworthy music festivals, including The San Anselmo Organ Festival, the Redlands Organ Festival and the Spoleto Festival.  Since 1997, he has also served every September as an adjudicator and festival artist in the Albert Schweitzer Organ Festival and Competition / USA in greater Hartford, Connecticut.

As an organist, Frederick Hohman has been acclaimed by a critic with The Diapason magazine as "one of the symphonic organ's strongest exponents."  His 1984 doctoral essay, "The Art of the Symphonic Organist," and his 1985 CD "Lemare Affair" ignited a revival in symphonic organ literature and performance practices.  This led to his first organ transcription publications, and to the appearance of 2 sequel "Lemare Affair" CDs as well as a popular organ CD entitled "SympHohmania."  

Frederick Hohman's organ transcriptions and original organ music can be found published by Wayne Leupold Editions ( www.wayneleupold.com ) and by Zarex Scores ( www.zarex.com ). He has also penned music under the nom de plume "Carlos Xavier Santiago." Works for organ and orchestra - penned under both identities - were recently premiered to a warm reception with the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Joseph Schlefke, before the 2008 Twin Cities National Convention of the American Guild of Organists in Minneapolis.

Since 2008, Fred has become active at the national level in The American Guild of Organists (AGO). He presently serves as the Director of the AGO's Committee on Educational Resources, lending both his academic and his manufacturing and publishing experience, as the AGO develops, publishes and distributes timely and relevant educational articles, in print, CD and DVD, to the AGO membership.

Fred has produced over 200 organ and choral CDs, working with a variety of both new and established artists.  Many of these CDs have drawn critical-acclaim in music and audiophile trade journals, including The Absolute Sound, Fanfare, The Gramophone. The Organ, Choir & Organ, The Diapason, Musical Opinion and The American Organist. Most of his CD productions find release on Pro Organo, a label he founded in 1985, and for which he still serves as Senior Producer / Engineer and Director of Artists and Repertoire.  He is also known for his mastering and engineering skills as applied  in all recent surround-sound SACDs for the Albany Records label.  His work as an audio producer expanded to television in 1996, where, through 2001, he produced a television series about pipe organs and organists, entitled "Midnight Pipes."  This series aired over several public television affiliates.  Segments from the Midnight Pipes series are still seen on the worldwide-distributed Classic Arts Showcase (ARTS Cable Channel), and on YouTube at www.youtube.com/midnightpipes .

When not on location for concerts or recordings, Fred can be found working in his music studio and audio / video facility, Zarex HD, in South Bend, Indiana, and in his home shared with spouse Elizabeth.  There he practices on a 1923 vintage 4-manual Austin organ console and on a recent C. Bechstein Model D 280 concert grand, and composes on a Sibelius workstation.  Frederick Hohman's independent, entrepreneurial American artist's life was featured as a lead story in the recent issues of The Organ and Choir & Organ, two of the British organ trade "glossies."  His website is: www.frederickhohman.net and his CD label website is: www.proorgano.com