Thomas Hundemer, principal horn of the Shreveport Symphony since 1983, and a native of Bogalusa, Louisiana, has performed with many orchestras in the U.S and Mexico, among them the Orquesta Sinfonica de Xalapa in Mexico, and the Quad Cities Symphony (Iowa-Illinois). He is principal horn with the orchestras of Longview, Marshall, Texarkana and South Arkansas, and 3rd horn with the Cabrillo Music Festival Orchestra in Santa Cruz, CA, and the Des Moines Metro Opera Orchestra. Mr. Hundemer is Director of the Hurley Music Library and Lecturer in Horn at Centenary College in Shreveport as well at Bossier Parish Community College, and was the 1997 recipient of the Shreveport Regional Arts Council’s Artist Fellowship in Music, as well as a 1999 and 2001 individual artist grants. Mr. Hundemer holds a Bachelor of Science degree in composition from the University of Southern Mississippi and a Master of Arts degree in horn performance from the University of Iowa.
As a composer he has had numerous performances of works for chamber ensembles and choir, including his orchestral piece On Highways and Byways, commissioned for the bicentennial of the Louisiana Purchase and premiered by the Shreveport Symphony in 2004. In 1996, his scoring and arrangement of Despujols Portraits (music by French painter Jean Despujols) for orchestra was performed and recorded by the Shreveport Symphony for the Meadows Museum of Art at Centenary College. Three of his arrangements for the Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band’s appearance with the Shreveport Symphony were performed in 1999 at Shreveport’s historic Municipal Auditorium. A commissioned work in honor of U. S. veterans for horn, percussion and strings, 11.11.11, was premiered in November 2011 as part of the Carthage, Texas Veterans Day ceremony. He is married to flutist Sally Horak and they have two children, Greg and Gretchen.