Biography
VINROY D. BROWN, JR. holds credits in conducting, sacred music and music education. He is Adjunct Assistant Professor of Sacred Music at Westminster Choir College, where he conducts the Westminster Jubilee Singers, teaches in the Baccalaureate Honors Program, is Founder & Curator of the university wide Celebration of Black Music and director of the Westminster Vocal Institute. He was 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 minister of creative worship, music & arts at the historic Abyssinian Baptist Church in the City of New Yok. Maintaining an active conducting schedule, he artistic director and conductor of Capital Singers of Trenton.
He is a scholar on music of the Black experience, women, and living composers, facilitates cultural informant exchange, 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. 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.
An active conductor, During the 2025-2026 season, Brown will headline the Millikin University Vocal Festival and the Rowan University Tenor-Bass Festival, conduct Handel’s Messiah with the Abyssinian Cathedral Choir and New York Philharmonic, conduct the Margaret Bonds Credo with the Westminster Jubilee Singers and Randall Thompson’s The Testament of Freedom with Capital Singers of Trenton. As a performer, Brown was in the Netflix film, Maestro, starring Bradley Cooper, winning the 2025 Grammy Award for Soundtrack for Visual Media. 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.
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 national second vice president & director of membership 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 the Master of Music in Choral Conducting degree from Temple University, where he was the recipient of the Elaine Brown Choral Award and the inaugural recipient of the Alan Harler 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 a Sigma Alpha Phi scholar at Temple University where he is pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy in Music Degree, Musicology concentration, with additional work in Africology & African American studies.