Bill Crane is a tireless champion of musicals and choirs throughout Peterborough and its surrounding Counties. The Peterborough Theatre Guild, numerous schools, Arbour Theatre, the Lindsay Theatre Guild and Bancroft Theatre Guild have all benefitted from his specialized musical arrangements. He has also been known to personalize music to meet the requirements of specific performers, even transposing the music to a different key to suit the performer’s vocal range better.
Bill has delighted audiences with his beautiful tenor singing voice, both ensemble and solo as well as his Church for a good many years. He has impressively sung solo with the Peterborough Symphony in Amahl and the Night Visitors and in Impresario. Bill Crane founded the Peterborough County Youth Choir in the mid 1970’s precursor to today’s Peterborough Children’s Chorus. He actually grew the Youth Choir to just under 280 children, admittedly a massive number.
He is also known as one the best vocal teachers in the area. Hundreds of people have learned priceless and lasting singing techniques from him, and they are still doing so as he remains actively engaged in giving private singing lessons today.
As an elementary classroom teacher, he introduced his own classes to playing the recorder. Over a number of years, he taught advance classes and eventually as lead Arts Coordinator for the Peterborough County Board of Education wrote a full curriculum for teaching the instrument.
Bill Crane has a music teaching credo containing 3 important aspects: 1) the understanding that music lifts the spirit 2) the deep conviction that every person is programmed to be able to make music – it just takes the right approach for each individual and 3) that learning to make music (singing or playing an instrument) should be fun.