Hodge Products began in 1992 in southern Maryland as Ann Hodge Double Reed Supplies, committed to providing oboe reeds and accessories to oboe players. As an oboist, Ann Hodge was used to using silk to clean her instruments. Silk has long been used by oboists because they had recognized that silk’s ability to compress made it possible to go through the very small diameter opening at the top of the oboe. In 1995, Ann then applied that concept to making silk swabs for all the woodwind instruments and began supplying music stores with Hodge silk swabs. Swabs for some of the brass instruments were added in 2015. Her husband, Alan, joined the company full time in 2001 and the name was changed to Hodge Products, Inc. The business was moved to the Blue Ridge Mountains in central Virginia in 2003. Hodge Silk Swabs are distributed by all the major American Music Distributors and by a number of international distributors as well. We at Hodge Products work hard to supply musicians with high quality swabs that do the job right.

Hodge Products began making student reed cases in 1998 to offer quality reed cases at affordable prices. These are also available from many of the leading American music industry distributors. We are continuing to strive to bring quality products to musicians.

Biographies

Ann Hodge is the president of Hodge Products, Inc. and the oboe and English horn specialist. She holds two Master of Music degrees: one in Oboe Performance and the other in Music History from Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas, completed in 1987 and a Bachelor of Music degree from Ithaca College (Ithaca, New York), completed in 1985. Ann was a freelance oboist in the Washington, D.C. area for many years and a member of the Arlington Symphony (Virginia) under the baton of Ruben Vartanyan from 1993-2008. She has spent many of the intervening years developing Hodge Products, Inc. and raising her family. Her husband, Alan, joined the company full-time in 2001. Ann and Alan are homeschooling parents of six children, five of which are grown. Recently Ann has returned more actively to the freelance scene, playing with the Lynchburg Symphony and throughout the central Virginia mountain region.

Alan Hodge is the vice president at Hodge Products, Inc., and is responsible for technical support, facilities, and resourcing, among other things. He holds a Master of Arts degree (1987) in Education and a Bachelor of Science degree (1986) in Computer Science, both from Virginia Tech. Prior to joining Hodge Products full-time in 2001, Alan was a software engineer.