Vinroy D. Brown, Jr.

Vinroy D. Brown, Jr. holds credits in conducting, sacred music, and music education. He is a member of both the Performance Studies and Baccalaureate Honors Program faculty at Westminster Choir College, where he conducts the Westminster Jubilee Singers and previously taught African American Choral Literature. He was most recently a Lecturer of Music in the College of Communication & Fine Arts at Loyola Marymount University where he developed their inaugural course in music and social justice. A church musician, he is director of music and worship arts at Elmwood United Presbyterian Church. Maintaining an active conducting schedule, he is founder and artistic director of Elmwood Concert Singers and is artistic director and conductor of Capital Singers of Trenton.

An active conductor, Brown recently conducted the Mansfield Philharmonic, the Voices of Houston and the Westminster Jubilee Singers in a performance of Rosephanye Powell’s The Cry of Jeremiah at the Convention of the National Association of Negro Musicians in Dallas, Texas. He also conducted the Newark Public Schools Vocal Jubilee at the historic Newark Symphony Hall and the CJMEA Region II Intermediate Treble Chorus last academic year. This season, he served as Guest Conductor of the New Jersey All Shore High School Chorus, headlined the Tenor-Bass Choral Festival at Rowan University, and conducted the Rowan University Concert Choir in performance. Most notably, Brown served as Chorus Conductor for the world premiere performances of Omar by Rihannon Giddens and Michael Abels, which received the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Music.

His scholarship elevates the music of the Black experience, women, and living composers, and explores the ways in which music can be used as a tool for social justice and anti-racism in diverse learning communities. He is published in the Choral Journal of the American Choral Directors Association and is a contributing author of Choral Repertoire by Women Composers, to be released in 2025. Brown is also the curator of the Black Psalmody Database, the first compendium of choral settings of the Psalter by Black composers.

Professor Brown has presented for the National Conference of the American Choral Directors Association, National Collegiate Choral Organization, New Jersey Education Association and for Virginia, Georgia, Illinois, and Maryland Music Education Association Conferences. He has lectured at the University of Miami, Millikin University, Kutztown University, Princeton University, Yale University, Rowan University, The University of Delaware, and The College of New Jersey.

Professor Brown holds membership in the National Association for Music Education, National Alliance of Black School Educators, American Choral Directors Association, International Society for Black Musicians, National Collegiate Choral Organization, and the National Association of Negro Musicians, Inc., for which he is Eastern Region Director and Chief Editor of EMERGENCE: Research & Performance Topics in Black Music, a scholarly publication which will be released this year. Brown is also a proud member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity, Inc. He holds a Master of Music in Choral Conducting from Temple University, where he was the recipient of the Elaine Brown Choral Award, the Master of Arts in Practical Theology degree from Regent University, and Bachelor of Music degrees in Sacred Music and Music Education from Westminster Choir College. Currently, Brown is pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy in Music Degree, Musicology concentration, from Temple University.

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