A. Eric Heukeshoven (pronounced Hoy-kess-hoh-ven) is a first-generation American – the son of a German immigrant father and Scandinavian mother. Heukeshoven holds a B.A. in Music Composition and Theory from the University of Minnesota-Minneapolis and an M.S. in Music Technology from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. His composition mentors include Dominick Argento, Paul Fetler, Frank Bencriscutto, Tom Root, Erik Stokes, Sylvia Dyrhaug, David Cope, Kevin Dobbe, and John Paulson.
Heukeshoven served in a variety of roles as Assistant Professor of Music at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota beginning in 1987. Heukeshoven directed the Music Industry and Jazz Studies programs from 2012 to 2022. His teaching duties included composition, arranging, low brass, and jazz piano as well as directing many brass ensembles, jazz combos and the Jazz Ensemble. He also designed, developed, and managed the school’s state-of-the-art multimedia production facility – Studio ‘S’.
Heukeshoven’s instrumental and choral compositions are published by Carl Fisher, Score Exchange, and Swirly Music. His works are performed throughout the U.S. and Europe, and he is in demand on jazz keyboard and trombone as well as a composer/arranger. He is a member of ASCAP, American Composers Forum, American Guild of Organists, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. In 2023, Heukeshoven was inducted as a National Arts Associate in Sigma Alpha Iota where he also is member of the SAI Composers Bureau.
Heukeshoven currently serves as Director of Worship, Music & Arts for Central Lutheran Church in Winona, Minnesota. In the fall of 2024, he joined the faculty at Winona State University as instructor of low brass.
The composer and his wife, Janet, have two sons, two grandchildren, and a ginger cat.