HFC welcomes Erik Hose, who brings expertise and enthusiasm to the music program
New HFC music instructor Erik Hose considers himself a "huge gearhead."
"I've owned four Fords in my life, so the name of the College was intriguing. I also knew car culture was impressive in the Dearborn area, where I’ve enjoyed going to car shows and seeing the variety of old cars here. On top of that, I found the music program here at HFC to have a lot of upsides and some fantastic colleagues. I like how laid back everything is here. My colleagues are extremely easy to work with and very receptive to new ideas," said Hose, of Farmington Hills.
Band director convinced him to go into music
Born in Fort Wayne, IN, Hose, the second of four children, grew up outside Kansas City, MO, where he graduated from Blue Springs High School. Hose earned his bachelor's degree in music with an emphasis on bass clarinet, audio production, and entrepreneurship from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He later earned his master's degree in music technology from the University of Central Missouri.
Louisiana State University Director of Bands and Paula G. Manship Professor of Conducting Dr. Damon Talley inspired Hose to make music his career.
"After earning first chair at the Midwest Honor Symposium at UMKC, Damon asked me what my plans were for college. I had made up my mind to work on a basic business degree. He convinced me to audition to see what scholarships were available, and I ended up getting more than $50,000 from UMKC between academics and music," recalled Hose. "While there, I realized that performance was not for me, as I did not enjoy the 4-6 hours of daily practice needed to keep up with orchestral auditions. I took a class my junior year called audio production, and I immediately fell in love with it. It was the perfect mix of technical knowledge with music and had a great tie-in with my business interests. From then on, this has been my career path."
Hose continued: "I always liked telling people about my interests and passions from a young age. I realized that I enjoy educating people about subjects that I am passionate about. After high school, I taught lessons ranging from clarinet to marching band to driving. All o this showed me that I really enjoyed teaching. I made my final move to full-time teaching while working at Sweetwater [a music retailer], where I found I enjoyed helping customers who were new to recording. When I had opportunity to teach as a full-time professor at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX, I decided to focus entirely on teaching."
Enjoys seeing students grow as musicians and engineers
Since 2015, Hose has taught private music lessons. He began teaching at the college level in 2022 when he was a grad student at UCM. He also taught at the University of Nebraska at Omaha before joining the HFC faculty in the 2026. He is teaching the following classes:
- Audio Recording Technology I
- Pro Tools 101
For Hose, the biggest challenge of teaching is also the best part.
"Many students need to be patient. They come in and immediately want to be making fully produced albums. To do that, you must learn the basics and grow from there," he explained. "The best part of teaching is watching students grow as musicians and engineers. I enjoy seeing them go from struggling to record a single track to releasing entire albums of high quality."
Outside of teaching, Hose has played in bands. His current project is a new album called Baron Von Hohs, which he expeccts to release soon. He also has his own YouTube channel.
"In a short time, Erik has brought expertise, enthusiasm, and an immediate chemistry to the students of HFC," said HFC Director of Music Anthony Lai. "I can't wait to see what we can accomplish together to elevate HFC music to its next level."