Frederick Frahm

Frederick Frahm (b. 1964, California, USA) is an American composer, organist, publisher, and parish musician.

Frahm co-founded the new organ repertoire artists collective Firehead Organ Works with Huw Morgan in 2015. In 2024, he retired after several years as a Production Editor at Augsburg Fortress (Minneapolis). He holds degrees in Church Music (BM) and Organ Performance (MM) from Pacific Lutheran University (Tacoma, WA), where his studies encompassed historic and contemporary repertoire, improvisation, and counterpoint under David Dahl and Gregory Peterson; composition with Roger Briggs and Gregory Youtz; and conducting with Richard Sparks.

Prior to his parish work retirement in 2021, Frahm directed church music programs in the United States for four decades. He also served as a classical music critic for the Bellingham Herald (Bellingham, WA) and held an adjunct faculty position at Concordia University (River Forest, IL), teaching 16th-century counterpoint, music theory and composition, and orchestration. From 2011 to 2022, Frahm was a collaborative teaching artist, resident composer, and accompanist for the Santa Fe Opera Company's LifeSongs & Active Learning Through Opera (ALTO) programs.

A prolific composer, Frahm's extensive catalog includes works for organ and piano, choral and chamber ensembles, art song and song cycles, symphonic and concerto forms, and extended vocal works such as opera, oratorio, and cantata. Commissions include the Santa Fe Opera Company, Albuquerque AGO, Festa Cultura di San Giovanni Battista, Chiesa di Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri, performers Carson Cooman and Robin Walker, and various parish communities and individuals.

Frahm's catalog is represented by distinguished publishers in the US and Europe including Augsburg Fortress (Minneapolis), Concordia Publishing House (St. Louis), Firehead Organ Works (Bristol), Musik Fabrik (Paris), Zimbel Press (Cambridge), and SheetMusicDirect.