William Bradley Roberts › Texts

William Bradley Roberts is currently Professor Emeritus of Church Music at Virginia Theological Seminary and Director of Chapel Music. He retired in December 2019.

He received the Bachelor of Arts degree from Houston Baptist University with double majors in Voice and Music Education. He received the degrees Master of Church Music and Doctor of Musical Arts from Southern Seminary (Louisville, Ky.) with an emphasis in Conducting and Voice. His doctoral dissertation is entitled Darius Milhaud, His Life and Choral Works with Biblical Texts: A Conductor’s Study.

Roberts was ordained in the Baptist Church in 1971. Prior to his coming to Virginia Seminary, he was an Episcopal church musician for thirty-three years, the most recent position being St. John’s, Lafayette Square, Washington, D.C. Before coming to St. John’s, he held similar posts in Tucson, Ariz., Newport Beach, Calif., Louisville, Ky., and Houston, Tex.

He has taught on the music faculties of Indiana University Southeast, Southern Seminary, Mars Hills College and Louisville Presbyterian Seminary.

Roberts is a composer with works published by Augsburg-Fortress, G.I.A., Hope, Paraclete, St. James Music Press and Selah. His hymns and other music for worship appear in several volumes including the hymnals of the Evangelical Lutheran Church and the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod and various collections of Church Publishing Inc. He has composed on commissions from a number of schools, churches and individuals.

Dr. Roberts has had articles published in the Journal of the Association of Anglican Musicians(AAM), the Journal of the Association of Diocesan Liturgy and Music Commissions, (ADLMC) and The Living Church. An upcoming book, Rise Up, Shepherd: Clergy Building Vibrant Congregations Through Music, will be released by Church Publishing Inc. in the summer of 2009.

Roberts was chair of the Episcopal Church’s Standing Commission on Church Music and a founding board member and chair of the Leadership Program for Musicians. Currently he is a member of the boards of the Seminary Music Initiative, the Anglican Musicians’ Mentoring Project, and Melodious Accord, a non-profit organization that promotes the work of composer Alice Parker. He was on the New Music Commissions Committee for the 2010 national convention of the American Guild of Organists.

Active as a leader at conferences and workshops, Roberts has made presentations in the Episcopal dioceses of Dallas, East Carolina, Los Angeles, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Southern Virginia, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and Western New York.

William Bradly Roberts