Dr. Robert L. Morris is a composer, arranger, and conductor of African American music, including spirituals, jazz, and original compositions. He is the sole child of the late Robert Morris, a cabdriver, and Ella Wilkerson Morris, a domestic worker in Chicago, Illinois. Morris earned his B.A. from DePaul University in 1964, a Master’s degree from Indiana University in 1970, and a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in 1984.
While living In Chicago, Morris actively participated in the work of the Chicago Music Association, the original branch of the National Association of Negro Musicians. As a member of the Irving Bunton Singers, he was given an opportunity to arrange choral music for Duke Ellington’s My People (1963).
Morris has taught at a number of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), beginning with Hampton University, 1970-1971. Prior to receiving his PhD. At Iowa, he worked at Winston-Salem State University, from 1978 to 1984 where he introduced a diverse repertoire of choral styles, spanning from European classical material to Negro spirituals.
After obtaining his Ph.D. in conducting from the University of Iowa, Morris continued to compose and arrange music at Jackson State University in Jackson, Mississippi from 1984 to 1992. There, he taught voice and rehearsed the choir daily for a year. The choir participated in large orchestral choral works and collaborated with the Mississippi Opera.
Moving north to Minnesota, Morris became the Director of Choral Activities at Macalester College, working there from 1992 to 2003. While at Macalester he joined Anton Armstrong at Saint Olaf and Lawrence Burnett at Carleton as one of three African American conductors working with choirs in elite white colleges in the state.
Lyric Suite Cover
Morris Visited Cuba on several occasions as a consultant on African American religious music, working with a program titled “Culture as an Agent of Social Change,” sponsored by the Ecumenical Council of Churches of Cuba (1993-96). Among other writings, he has published “Recognition Politics: the Black Brazilian Concert Composer’s Influence” in Macalester International Vol. 5 (1997). Included in his notable compositions are: “The Lyric Suite: Five Movements for Voice and Piano”; “The Sabbath Etudes: Five Movements for Concert Piano,” and “City Signs: a Spiritual Walk Through the City.”
In 1994, Morris founded The Leigh Morris Chorale, a community-based vocal group that performed his original works and arrangements including spirituals. His music has been performed by other groups including the Minnesota Chorale, the Moses Hogan Singers, the Dale Warland Singers, the Nathaniel Dett Chorale of Canada, the Youth Choir of Jamaica, and the Boys Choir of Harlem. Among his other activities, Morris has conducted in Carnegie Hall, the Orchestra Hall of Chicago, and Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis. His music has been recorded on the albums “Vocal Essence” (1997) “Heart on the Wall” (2011), and “Singing Justice” (2022).
In 1998 Morris wrote “The Ties that Bind” for two choirs, one Black and one White, that explores complicated relations between the African American and Jewish communities. In the years following the Lyric Suite and City Signs, Morris produced, with his chorale, Gospel Pearls, a program that transcribes classic gospel music for the concert stage.
Now in retirement, Robert Morris continues to investigate the roots of Black music in the Negro spiritual as well as African American gospel for concert choirs.
