A native of Louisville, KY, Chester Alwes has served the music faculties of the College of Wooster, the University of Rochester/Eastman School of Music and, from 1982-2011, the University of Illinois as Urbana-Champaign. At Illinois, Alwes developed a national reputation as a specialist in the history and performance practice of choral literature. Alwes has authored numerous articles in a variety of journals and is a composer, editor, and arranger with works published by Oxford University Press, Roger Dean Music, Mark Foster Music, et al. At Illinois, Alwes has overseen the successful completion of over thirty dissertations on the choral music of various periods and styles.