Dr. Black’s primary research focuses on the intersections between gospel music and European choral traditions. His 2024 dissertation used the choral music of composers Isaac Cates, Dr. Diane L. White-Clayton, and Dr. Raymond Wise to demonstrate these musical intersections, provide pedagogical guidance for conductors to perform the gospel style, and included added insight from composer interviews.
Dr. Black’s dissertation is available here for public access.
An article based on this research has also been published in the Fall 2025 edition of The Choral Scholar & American Choral Review, Vol. 62, No. 2 (the online publication of the National Collegiate Choral Organization. This article can be found here.
Excerpts of this research were demonstrated in his December 2023 conducting lecture recital below:
University of South Carolina Graduate Vocal Ensemble, December 2023
Suggested Repertoire Lists of Published and Unpublished Gospel Works with European Choral Intersections:
ADDITIONAL RESEARCH TOPICS:
Black Choral Music: An Overview of Black Choral Artists Throughout the 20th-21st Centuries
A presentation of selected Black choral artists and their ongoing contributions to the choral art
Stinney: A Conductor’s Eye on a Black Tragedy
A discussion of my experience conducting Frances Pollock’s original opera, Stinney: An American Execution based on the story of George Stinney, Jr., a 14-year-old black boy wrongfully sent to the electric chair in Alcolu, SC.
Dr. Bryon Black II 