Richard Bjella has distinguished himself as an internationally-acclaimed conductor, clinician, choral pedagogue, and choral arranger. In 2014, Bjella was appointed Artistic Director of the San Antonio Chamber Choir. He retired from Texas Tech University in 2017, but previous to his work in Lubbock, Bjella served 25 years as Director of Choral Studies at the Lawrence Conservatory of Music. Choirs under his leadership have performed on numerous occasions for the American Choral Directors Association and the Texas Music Educators Association.
Bjella has presented numerous workshops at several prestigious international and national professional organizations as well as serving as the Texas All-State Large Mixed Choir Conductor at the 2025 conference in San Antonio. He is the editor for the Richard Bjella Choral Series with Hal Leonard Publications and has presented sessions on programming for teachers throughout the world. He has written over fifty choral arrangements for choral ensembles around the globe.
He served as Guest Professor at Carthage College (2021), and at the University of Madison (2023-24). Bjella was the recipient of the Professor of Excellence Award at Texas Tech and the Lawrence University Teaching Award. He was also honored to receive professional awards of achievement from the Wisconsin Choral Directors.