Dr. Stanley L. Roberts
Stanley L. Roberts is in his twenty-seventh year of teaching in the Townsend School of Music of Mercer University, where he is the Arthur Lowndes Rich Professor of Choral Conducting and Associate Dean. In this position, he conducts the Mercer Singers, the Mercer Women’s Chamber Choir, and the University Choir while teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in conducting, choral literature and techniques. Choirs under his direction have sung on numerous programs for the Georgia Music Educators Association, ACDA Southern Region, and the Southern Division of NafME (MENC). With the Mercer Singers, he has led seven highly successful international tours of Great Britain, Eastern and Western Europe, Russia and Japan, with performances in St. Paul’s (London), Ely Cathedral (Ely), King’s College (Cambridge), St. Vitus (Prague), St. Peters (Vatican), Matthias Church (Budapest), Christ Church (Oxford), Great St. Mary (Cambridge), Hibiki Hall (Kitakyushu), Cappella Hall (St. Petersburg), Spivey Hall (Atlanta), and Carnegie Hall (New York). Further, the Mercer Singers have collaborated with several international choirs including the Warwick University Chamber Choir (England), St. Petersburg University Chamber Choir (Russia), the Gnessins Chamber Choir (State Music College, Moscow), the Claudio Monteverdi Choir (Castelfiorentino, Italy), and the Swindon Choral Society (England). Additionally, the Mercer Singers have gained a tremendous following with its annual performances of A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols held each December. The choir is widely acclaimed for its spirited performances, breadth of repertoire, and dedication to singing repertoire of the a cappella idiom.
A passionate educator, Dr. Roberts has been chosen as Mercer University’s Outstanding Faculty Member of the Year, Professor of the Year by Mercer’s Student Government Association, and the Townsend School of Music Professor of the Year. As a conductor and clinician he has engaged with All-State Choirs, Honor Choirs, and Festival Choruses throughout the United States, England, Europe and South Africa, as well as leading choral workshops in universities, colleges, churches, and schools. In 2013, the PBS special A Grand Mercer Christmas featuring the Mercer Singers and the McDuffie Center for Strings under the baton of Dr. Roberts was released nationally with much acclaim. He is also conductor and artistic director of the Choral Society of Middle Georgia, an 80-voiced ensemble that collaborates with the University Choir for performances of major choral/orchestral works. An energetic and active member of the ACDA & NAfME (MENC), he has served in numerous leadership capacities for both organizations. He is a Past President for Georgia ACDA and is the newly elected president of ACDA Southern Region (2022). A strong advocate for church music for 40 years, he is a co-editor of the hymnal Celebrating Grace (2010) and currently serves as Minister of Music at the First Baptist Church of Christ in Macon, Georgia. In 1994 he became the founder and director of jubilate! –a mass choir singing & touring experience for church youth choirs across the southern United States. Dr. Roberts is a proud alumnus of Mercer University (1984) and is married to performer and teacher Marie Jarriel Roberts, soprano.
