Billy Roberts earned his Bachelor of Musical Arts degree studying French horn at the University of Oklahoma, where he participated in band, orchestra, brass and woodwind chamber music, university chorus, and various other ensembles. While at OU, he studied under Dr. Eldon Matlick and, for a few months, was coached by trumpet professor Jacob Larson. In the years shortly after OU graduation, Billy was part of Norman’s First Baptist Church orchestra and also an original member of the OU Civic Orchestra in 2003. His most memorable experience from that first season with the Civic came through an invitation to accompany a choir as part of a chamber orchestra. Although he had played horn with large church choirs for many years, this experience gave him a new appreciation for the tones and timbres in choral and orchestral chamber music. In 2010, he put the horn away for a whole decade to focus on voice, marriage, and starting a family. As he developed a desire to teach, he went back to school to pursue a career in secondary education. After obtaining initial teaching certification in mathematics, he chose to tutor instead of going into full-time teaching in order to have more time available at home. In the meantime, he obtained additional certifications in both vocal and instrumental music education.
DEGREES AWARDED
B.M.A., French Horn - University of Oklahoma
B.S., Mathematics - University of Central Oklahoma
M.Ed., With Honors, Secondary Education - University of Central Oklahoma
Mr. Roberts's passion for music began to develop at age four, through children’s choirs and piano lessons. He was also taught viola at grade five in the public schools and played it through high school. He continued singing with his church choir throughout his school years and has served as a piano accompanist at various times since his teenage years. While an undergraduate at OU, in addition to horn, he took several semesters of applied piano and sang for a half season with the Norman Community Choral Society. In the years following, he continued to sing with various choral ensembles, including multiple years with the OU University Chorale under Dennis Shrock, a year and a half with the OU Choral Union, a brief time with the Edmond Community Chorale after his son was born, and several semesters with the University Choir at UCO while completing his second bachelor’s degree. Billy has been a member of the Windsong Chamber Choir since 2019. In early 2021, he returned to the horn after encouragement from a former conductor of the OU Civic Orchestra that he had played for from 2007-2009. The horn quickly reclaimed its place of primary focus for personal practice.
His passion for teaching developed through his own personal journey of finding his voice, as well as time spent reading with his children, helping them with math and other schoolwork, and encouraging them to discover their musical talents. Billy had numerous obstacles to overcome in developing his technique in horn and voice, related to sinus issues and the tendency to play and sing with unnatural, forced air. Working through these issues helped him to gain a greater understanding of playing and singing with a relaxed breath and natural tone. A year of classical voice training with opera-minded teacher Dr. Sandra Gall also helped him to solidify these concepts. Singing and wind playing require a lot of air but, with regard to tone, “the quality of air is more important than quantity,” as his horn professor and others have pointed out.