WILLIAM BRADLEY ROBERTS, founding music director of Vox Humana, is a conductor, composer, and singer and has spent much of his life as an Episcopal church musician.
His last church music position was at St. John’s, Lafayette Square, Washington, D.C. Prior to that he held similar positions in Tucson, Ariz., Newport Beach, Calif., Louisville, Ky., and Houston, Tex. He has taught at Indiana University, Southeast, Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Southern Seminary, and Mars Hill College. He has done workshops across the country from New York’s Juilliard School to the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. Before moving to Richmond in 2020 he was professor of church music and director of chapel music for thirteen years at Virginia Theological Seminary (Episcopal) in greater Washington DC.
While in the L.A. area he sang for seven years with the professional Los Angeles Master Chorale and the L.A. Philharmonic, where he enjoyed performing under some of the great conductors of the world. His formative years as a horn player seasoned his work with orchestra. Throughout his career, he has conducted numerous major choral works with orchestra, and his own compositions are published by Augsburg, Church Hymnal, MorningStar, Paraclete, St. James Music Press, and Selah. His doctoral dissertation is on the choral words of French composer Darius Milhaud, and he is author of the book “Music and Vital Congregations.”
Dr. Roberts is a frequent contributor to professional journals. A recording of his choral music is available on the Gothic label and may be obtained from Gothic or any of the standard download services by searching his full name. He has done sabbatical study at two monasteries in France, the Abbey at Solesmes and the Taizé Community, as well as in Cambridge, UK, and with vocal pedagogue Richard Miller, Oberlin. He studied mid-career with composer Alice Parker, becoming a Fellow of her organization Melodious Accord.
Roberts currently sings with the Richmond Symphony Chorus.