Robert Ray (1946-December 15, 1922)
Robert Ray, pianist, composer and educator, was a graduate of St. Louis public schools. He attended Northwestern University, receiving his Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance. For 12 years, he served as accompanist-coach for the string department at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. While at Illinois, he established the Black Student Chorus, serving as its first director. Robert Ray had just begun teaching at the University of Illinois, when he was asked to compose a Catholic mass by Clarence Rivers, the first Black priest in the archdiocese of Cincinnati and a well-known liturgist. Rivers encouraged Ray to use Black music idioms, including jazz and spirituals, in a liturgical setting. Ray took on the task and his Gospel Mass premiered in Urbana in 1979, performed by a chorus made up of his students. The six-movement work has become an important part of choral literature, performed throughout the world. Ray appeared as piano soloist with the Kirkwood Symphony, The Northwestern University Orchestra, the Champaign-Urbana Symphony and the Seoul (Korea) Philharmonic. He toured as piano accompanist for William Warfield and Robert McFerrin and was the founder of the St. Louis Symphony’s IN UNISON Chorus, serving as the director from its inception in 1994-2010. He was also an Associate Professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
In Unison Chorus founder Robert Ray dies at 76, STL NPR
A New Recording of a Timeless Classical: Robert Ray’s Gospel Mass, Hyde Park Herald
Robert Ray Playlist, YouTube