William Payne is currently the Library Specialist in the Kemble Stout Music Listening Library (KSMLL) at Washington State University, Pullman. Previously, he was on the circulation staff of the University of Idaho for seven years.

His training is in choral music. He has earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Southern California and a Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts in choral music from Arizona State University. He has teaching has spanned elementary and secondary levels as well as choral and music education courses at the collegiate level. In his dissertation, he assessed stylistic characteristics and performance practices of short sacred choral works published in the United States from 1960-1985. He has studied with Charles Hirt, James Vail, Lloyd Pfautsch, Douglas McEwen and Paul Salamunovich.

Dr. Payne has served as the director of the Chancel Choir at First Presbyterian Church in Moscow, ID for several years. He has also served in music ministries in Arizona and Illinois.

The Choral Journal (a publication of the American Choral Directors Association) has published several of Dr. Payne's reviews of published choral music and other music reference materials.

Dr. Payne currently lives in Moscow, Idaho with his wife, Nancy. She is a senior staff member in the University of Idaho School of Family and Consumer Science and an accomplished free-lance editor and writer. He has three grown children and three grandchildren, whom he thoroughly enjoys. He is especially fond of football and revels in this Saturday fall pastime.