Moses Hogan

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Moses George Hogan (March 13, 1957 – February 11, 2003) was an American composer and arranger famous for his choral music, especially spirituals. He was a pianist, conductor, and arranger known around the world, with his works sung by many choirs today. Hogan wrote 88 choral arrangements, eight as solo pieces.

He was born in New Orleans into a musical family. His father sang in church, his uncle was the church’s music minister, and his mother was a nurse. He showed musical talent early and could play piano by age nine. He studied music at Xavier University’s Junior School of Music, then attended the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts High School, graduating in 1975.

Hogan earned a full scholarship to Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he studied piano and earned a Bachelor of Music in 1979. He also studied at Juilliard and in Vienna. He won several piano competitions, including first prize at the Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Competition in New York.

Back in Louisiana, he formed the New World Ensemble in 1980 and began arranging choral music. In 1993 he started the Moses Hogan Chorale, and the next year published his first arrangement, Elijah Rock. The chorale performed at the 1996 World Choral Symposium in Sydney. In 1997 he founded the Moses Hogan Singers; their first album was released in 2002.

Hogan died from a brain tumor on February 11, 2003. In 1999, a holiday called Negro Spiritual/Moses Hogan Chorale Day was established in his honor.