A native of Mississippi, Stephen Roberts received his Bachelor of Music from the University of Oklahoma, where he studied with Mildred Andrews. He was the recipient of a Fulbright grant to Vienna, Austria, where he studied organ with Anton Heiller, improvisation with Peter Planyavsky, and harpsichord with Isolde Ahlgrim. He was the first student admitted to the then newly formed Institute of Sacred Music at Yale University, where he studied organ with Robert Baker, Gerre Hancock, and Michael Schneider, and harpsichord with Ralph Kirkpatrick. At Yale Stephen Roberts was the recipient of several prizes and awards, including the Bozyan Prize in organ. Since that time he has taught at several universities and was Director of Music at the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale for twelve years. In 1999 Stephen Roberts was appointed adjunct professor of organ at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, where he is also Director of Music at St. Peter Church. He has performed in recital in fifteen countries on four continents in venues such as the Konzerthaus and St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, the Great Hall of the Philharmonic in St. Petersburg, St. Mark's Basilica in Venice, St-Sulpice in Paris, Methuen Memorial Music Hall, and the Basilica of the Most Holy Sacrament in Buenos Aires.

Roberts is a successful teacher with an international class; his students have won many prizes and competitions, both here in the U.S.A. and abroad. He has had a number of articles published in professional journals in the U.S. and in Europe, and his performances have been featured in radio and television broadcasts as well. Roberts has been a featured lecturer and performer at conventions of the American Guild of Organists and the Organ Historical Society, and has given master classes at a number of universities and conservatories in a variety of countries. He is represented in the U.S.A. by Concert Artist Cooperative artist management.