Jonathan Rodgers has been a pianist, worship leader, arranger/composer, and choral conductor for over twenty years. He is Assistant Professor and Coordinator of Music and Worship Leadership program in Samford’s School of the Arts and Faculty Fellow at Samford’s Center for Worship and the Arts. Most recently, he was the Minister of Worship Arts at Hunter Street Baptist Church (Birmingham, AL) and, prior to that, was Assistant Professor of Choral Music at Lee University (Cleveland, TN).
Dr. Rodgers has served in churches throughout the Southeast while also maintaining an active clinic and presentation schedule. As a choral conductor, Rodgers has been a guest conductor for honor choirs in Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana. He has also presented sessions at National ACDA Conventions, state MEA conventions in Mississippi, Tennessee, and Georgia, and other conferences including Baylor University’s Alleluia, and YouthCUE Choirs Inc. His choirs have performed at state MEA conferences and collectively he has led over twenty-five extended choir tours across the U.S. and internationally. He is a member the American Choral Directors Association, The Hymn Society, the Society for Christian Scholarship in Music, and the Global Ethnodoxology Network. Additionally, he holds memberships with Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, Pi Kappa Lambda, Sigma Alpha Iota as a “Friend of the Arts.”
Rodgers earned the Bachelor of Music in Music Education and Master of Music in Church Music degrees from Samford University, studying conducting and church music with Milburn Price and Paul Richardson. He completed his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Choral Conducting at the University of Southern Mississippi, studying conducting with Gregory Fuller and John Flanery. His dissertation examines the choral singing tradition of Estonia and, specifically, the choral folksongs of Estonian nationalist composer Cyrillus Kreek. Most recently, his research agenda has included grant-funded work to the study of worship practices in Southern Baptist churches across the state of Alabama through a Teacher-Scholar grant from the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship.
In addition to conducting and scholarly activities, Rodgers serves as Worship Pastor at The Church at Liberty Park. As a pianist and arranger, he has produced an album of his own piano arrangements for worship, “Be Still: Worship at the Piano.” Additionally, his choral works have been published with GIA/Walton Music, Pavane, Colla Voce, and Canorous Music and performed by churches, schools, and colleges at honor choir festivals and ACDA conventions across the nation—even Carnegie Hall. Jonathan has been married to his wife Alicia for twenty-one years, and they have four children: Savannah, Leighton, Brooks, and Gabe.
