Email:

wiser@iu.edu

Department:

Choral Conducting

Raymond Wise is affiliated faculty in choral conducting at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music as well as professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies, executive director of the African American Arts Institute, and director of the African American Choral Ensemble at Indiana University.

A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Wise began his musical career at an early age, singing gospel music with his family singing group, The Wise Singers. His journey in music education includes a B.F.A. in Music (piano and voice) from Denison University (Granville, Ohio), additional studies in opera, art, and German at the Institute for European Studies in Vienna, Austria, and African American history, music, and dance at San Francisco State University in California.

He completed an apprenticeship in the business and recording of gospel music with the Walter Hawkins Corporation in Oakland, California. He earned a Master of Music Education, Ohio Teacher’s Certification, and Doctor of Music Education from The Ohio State University, with a dissertation titled Defining African American Gospel Music by Tracing its Historical and Musical Development from 1900 to 2000.

Wise was recently featured in the Emmy- and Telly Award-winning PBS documentary Amen: Music of the Black Church. He has served on the Ohio State University and Denison University faculties and is an adjunct professor at Trinity Lutheran Seminary (Columbus, Ohio) and Trevecca College (Nashville, Tennessee).

He is an ordained minister and has served as a church musician for more than 45 years. Wise has appeared on radio and television, recorded 25 albums, and performed with opera singers, orchestras, dance companies, and professional recording groups. He has toured extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Africa, and Asia as a singer, pianist, composer, lecturer, choreographer, and conductor for honor choirs and choral festivals. He recently performed at Carnegie Hall, where he debuted one of his many compositions. He has penned more than 680 compositions and received numerous commissions. His works are published by Hinshaw, GIA, Hal Leonard, MusicSpoke, Abingdon Press, and the United Methodist Publishing House. His anthology 21 Spirituals for the 21st Century has received national and international acclaim. 

Wise serves as the founder and president of Raise Productions’ Center for the Gospel Arts, a gospel music production and publishing company located in Columbus, Ohio. The company was established to offer educational training and resources for gospel artists and the community. Since 1986, he has been the artistic director of various performing and recording ensembles at Raise.

Additionally, Wise directed the Hampton University Ministers’ Conference–Choir Directors’ and Organists’ Guild and Academy, delivering extensive training in African American sacred music for church musicians. He has also been a member of the academic faculty for the Gospel Music Workshop of America for 37 years. Moreover, he acted as the ethnic and American music repertoire and standards chair for the American Choral Directors Association Central Division. With his comprehensive knowledge of the gospel and classical music genres, he has served as a consultant and clinician in academic and gospel music settings, well known for his ability to help choirs deliver authentic performances of gospel music.