Dr. William A. Payn is the director of choral studies, professor of music, and chairman of the Department of Music at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, PA. Active as a composer since the early 1970s, he has over twenty-two published handbell compositions.

He is constantly in demand as a handbell clinician and festival conductor throughout the world, having conducted four AGEHR national and numerous area conferences. In 1988 he traveled to Japan, where he served as clinician and guest conductor for the Handbell Ringers of Japan and the ringers at Kwansei Gakuin University. In 1983, Payn organized the Bucknell University Rooke Chapel Ringers, an ensemble consisting of twelve members who are selected by audition and who represent diverse fields of study.

Payn received his B.M. degree from Westminster Choir College (Princeton, NJ), and his Doctor of Musical Arts in organ and harpsichord literature from West Virginia University. He is a member of the American Choral Directors Association, and has received recognition in two reference publications: Contemporary American Composers: A Biographical Dictionary, and Who's Who in American Music: Classical.