Freddy Martin was born and educated through high school in Cobb County, Georgia. In high school Freddy was an all-state French horn player. He attended Jacksonville State University in Alabama where he received the Bachelor of Science degree in Music Education and was Vice President of the Sigma Nu Chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia professional music fraternity. Freddy has done post-graduate work at Georgia State University in Atlanta.
Freddy is the founding director of the famed Spirit of Atlanta Drum and Bugle Corps and continues to serve the Corps today as director emeritus. Under his direction the corps has been recognized as one of the finest marching music units in the world. Freddy is now on the brass instructional staff of the Phantom Regiment Drum Corps from Rockford, Illinois, and in 2006 was elected to the DCI Hall of Fame.
Freddy served as director of the South Cobb High School Bands. Under his ten-year direction the band grew from a membership of 17 students to one of the finest high school bands in the country with a membership of 284 students. The band program had a nationally recognized marching band, a fine jazz band, and four very fine concert bands, along with three winter color guards. He most recently served as band director at Buford High School. When Freddy arrived at Buford the high school band program was beginning to rebuild from a low of seven members. On his departure from Buford the high school band program had grown to 75 playing members and a color guard of 22 members in a high school of less than 300 total students.
Freddy is a trained adjudicator by the Central States Judges Association and the Southern States Judges Association. He has served as a clinician and adjudicator in most of the fifty states and in England. He has been an active adjudicator for Bands of America for the past twenty five years and has judged the Bands of America National Championship over a dozen times. Freddy has adjudicated over forty Bands of America Regional Championships along with a number of local and regional band competitions. He is an active adjudicator with the [www.nysfbc.org New York Field Band Conference] adjudicating dozens of N.Y.S.F.B.C local shows and the New York State Field Band Conference Championships several times. He has also participated in adjudicating many concert band festivals and contests. His concert band adjudication includes work in Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Florida, Texas, Mississippi and New York State.
Freddy is married to Lynda and they have two sons and a daughter. Chris, their oldest, was recently named Principal trumpet in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Crystal is now a senior at Jacksonville State in Psychology and performs regularly with stage productions and with the Jacksonville State Marching Band. Michael is a sophomore at Northwestern University where he is studying trumpet with Chris's former teachers [www.centerstage.net/music/whoswho/CharlesGeyer.html Charles Geyer] and Barbara Butler Geyer.
Freddy is adjunct faculty for brass at Emory University and is in his fourth year as band director and brass specialist at the Westminster Schools.
See Also[]
- Spirit of Atlanta