Franklin D. Ashdown is a composer and medical doctor, who has pursued dual careers for the past 3 decades. Born in 1942, he studied piano for 12 years, and was "recruited" at age 13 to play the organ for a local congregation. He later studied organ with Judson Maynard and James Drake, was was privately coached by Fred Tulan of San Francisco and Leonard Raver of New York's Juilliard School.
A widely-published composer of organ and choral music, Ashdown has had his works performed in venues ranging from Grace Cathedral in San Francisco and the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City to St. Paul's Cathedral in London and the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. His compositions have been featured on American Public Radio's Pipedreams, National Public Radio's All Things Considered, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's CBS broadcast Music and the Spoken Word. Leonard Raver and Stephen Burns recorded his "Requiem for the Challenger" for trumpet and organ on the Classic Masters label, and James Welch has included some of his solo organ music in his series of CD recordings for various labels.
A resident of Alamogordo, New Mexico, Ashdown enjoys a full life as an internist, composer, and organist-choir director for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.