William Bullock

William J. Bullock (b. 1943) is retired from a 50-plus-year career as conductor, professor and arts administrator. For thirty-three years, from 1968, he served university music departments as professor, choral conductor and administrator, retiring in 2000 as Professor Emeritus from Columbus (Georgia) State University’s Schwob School of Music. Previously he held similar positions at the University of Southern Mississippi and Tarrant County Community College (Fort Worth). In 2000 he founded the professional chorus Cantus Columbus, which for twenty years he conducted in annual Christmas concerts and periodic spring concerts of diverse literature, concentrating on arrangements of songs by the five founders of the Great American Songbook (Jerome Kern, Rodgers & Hart, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, and George & Ira Gershwin). During his years with Cantus Columbus, Dr. Bullock also conducted several theatrical productions, notably at the Springer Opera House in Columbus, and for twelve years served Columbus’ newly established RiverCenter for the Performing Arts, first as development director, then as executive director (2009–2015). 

For his student and professional musicians, Dr. Bullock prepared many editions, arrangements, transcriptions and translations, most notably his widely respected edition of the Brahms Requiem. The only bilingual edition of the work, it was released in 1997 to commemorate the centennial of the composer’s death by including, along with the original German text, Dr. Bullock’s thoroughly researched modern, prosodic English translation. Earlier editions were published by Lawson-Gould Publishers; more recent editions are in preparation. 

Dr. Bullock received his BME, MM and Ph.D. degrees from The Florida State University. He conducted and adjudicated choruses in seven south and southwestern states, conducted concert tours of Mexico and Eastern and Western Europe, and led study tours of Scandinavia and Australia. He founded the Six Flags over Texas Choral Festival, participated in international choral conferences in Vienna, Sydney, and Vancouver, and served as Mississippi state president of the American Choral Directors Association, as executive director of Southeastern Music Center (Georgia), and as choirmaster for Methodist and Episcopal churches. A choral literature authority, Dr. Bullock has published several journal articles and a book on the cantatas of J. S. Bach (Bach Cantatas Requiring Limited Resources: A Guide to Editions). A recipient of several awards, he is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda, Phi Kappa Phi honor societies and various professional organizations. 

Arrangements