Richard Bloesch received his doctorate in choral conducting and choral literature from the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign. He teaches the history of choral literature in the UI School of Music, conducts the Camerata Singers, and advises doctoral students. From 1987 to 1994 he was the national chair of the Repertoire and Standards Committee for Colleges and Universities in the American Choral Directors Association.

He is currently the compact disc review editor for Choral Journal. His monograph on twentieth-century choral music, Twentieth-Century Choral Music (An Annotated Bibliography of Music Appropriate for College and University Choirs), done in collaboration with Weyburn Wasson of Coe College, was published by the American Choral Directors Association in 1997.