Roland Marvin Carter (born May 4, 1942) is an American composer and conductor, largely of choral music.
A native of Chattanooga, Tennessee, Carter studied music education at Hampton University, from which he received a BA, and New York University, from which he received his MA; he studied piano, choral music, and composition.
In 1989 he moved to the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga,[1] where he directed the choir and continued to teach until his 2013 retirement.
He served as president of the National Association of Negro Musicians from 2003 until 2009, and publishes choral music, especially arrangements of spirituals, through his publishing company MAR-VEL; as a composer, he has created numerous spiritual arrangements himself, as well as composing new choral compositions on a variety of texts.
[1] As a conductor, Carter has said that he believes in performing spiritual arrangements much as he would the work of Johannes Brahms or Franz Schubert, rather than bringing a more folk-based sensibility to them.