Dr. Robert L. Morris, composer/conductor, is a native of Chicago, Illinois, and holds degrees from DePaul University (Chicago, IL), Indiana University (Bloomington, IN) where he studied with the late Julius Hereford, and The University of Iowa (Iowa City, IA). Morris has directed the choral programs at Macalester College, St. Paul, MN; Hampton University (Hampton, VA); Winston-Salem State University (Winston-Salem, NC); and Jackson State University (Jackson, MS). In each of these positions, his choirs received auditioned or honor invitations to the state, regional, and national conferences of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA). Morris is founder and conductor of the Leigh Morris Chorale, a group of professional singers whose varied repertoire consists of many of his compositions and choral settings. He recently became Minister of Music at the historic Dayton Avenue Presbyterian Church in St. Paul, MN.

Most recently, Morris completed commissioned work Sacred Fire for the Milwaukee Choristers. This work will be premiered in Milwaukee and Detroit, MI during the ensemble’s 2008 concert season. Ready!, a choral commission to be premiered in Denver, CO by the Spiritual Project choir is in progress now. Morris will again have a work premiered on the Living African American Composers series in November, 2008. His Psalm Shout! was performed at the inaugural program of that series in April, 2007 in Washington, DC. In 2006, he was asked to serve as conductor-clinician for In Unison, the community chorus that sings with, and is sponsored by, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Association. He has been selected twice as a composer-in-residence for The Composers Forum Faith Partners Project, an activity administrated by the Forum and underwritten by the Bremen Foundation that allows congregations to have their own composer-in-residence. Morris traveled to Cuba in 1993, 1994, 1995, and 1996. During these four trips, he participated in on-going discussions with academicians from the United States and Cuba on the topic, Culture as Social Change. The success of his performances and discussions of African American religious music as part of the conferences caused him to have an open invitation to return to Cuba at will. This recognition led to his invitation to share his expertise as the first American invited to participate in Legnica Cantat, Poland's most prestigious national choral festival. Because of this work, he was referred to the University of Western Australia (Perth) where his initial classes and choral presentations were so successful that he was invited to return within the year.

As a choral conductor, clinician and consultant, Morris has conducted at well-known venues, among them Carnegie Hall; Orchestra Hall, Chicago; and Orchestra Hall, Minneapolis. His compositions and arrangements have been performed nationally and internationally. These works have been performed and/or recorded by Dale Warland, Philip Brunelle and VocalEssence (formerly Plymouth Music Series) Moses Hogan Singers, Boys Choir of Harlem, Los Angeles Jubilee Singers, Nathaniel Dett Choir (Canada) the Minnesota Chorale, university, community and advanced high school choirs among others. In November 2006, he traveled to the Czech Republic where his Lyric Suite was recorded by soprano Louise Toppin, director of Videmus recording project at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC with the Prague Symphony Orchestra conducted by Julius Williams, conductor and teacher of composition at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA.

Morris is an Arthur J. Schmitt Fellow, a member of Phi Delta Kappa and the music fraternity Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, a life member of the American Choral Director's Association, and has served on the Board of Chorus America, and is a recent board member of the National Association of Negro Musicians (NANM). He has works in the catalogues of Mark Foster, Alliance Music, Roger Dean, Walton Music and GIA publishing houses in addition to his own Hidden Gems Music Company.