History
The Crane School was founded in 1886 by Julia Etta Crane (1855-1923) as the Crane Normal Institute of Music and was one of the first institutions in the country to have programs dedicated to training public school music teachers.
The school suffered from financial difficulties and in the 1920s Julia Crane petitioned the Juilliard Foundation to purchase her school. In 1922 she appeared before the Board of the Normal School to get the State Legislature to purchase the Crane Institute. She asked a price of $20,000 to incorporate the Crane Institute with the Normal School under the Department of Education. The bill was brought before the State Legislature and defeated.
In 1923 she was granted a leave of absence due to ill health. She died unexpectedly June 11, 1923 in her sister's home at 8 Lawrence Avenue, Potsdam. She is buried in Bayside Cemetery at Potsdam, New York.
Her will offered the State of New York first choice to purchase her school. In case of the State's rejection, the school would be offered to any private buyer who would carry on her work. After two attempts the legislature passed a bill to purchase the school in 1926. Her curriculum for music teacher education had been approved in 1924 by the State Education Department. The class of 1927 was the first to graduate from the Crane Department of Music of Potsdam State Normal School.
The Crane Symphony Orchestra was formed in 1839, the second earliest college orchestra in the country after Harvard. The permanent conductors have been Samuel Spurbeck, Maurice Baritaud, John Jadlos, Richard Stephan, Christopher Lanz, and Ching-Chun Lai. For many years a tour was undertaken every year, until financial restrictions curtailed the practice.
The orchestra has performed many concerts with Crane Chorus. Founded in 1931 by Helen M. Hosmer, the chorus is composed of almost entirely music majors of the Crane School of Music, the State University College in Potsdam, New York. Franklin Bishop conducted the orchestra from 1917 to 1940, and he made important contributions to Crane's reputation during that period. Other permanent conductors have been Helen M. Hosmer, Brock McElheran, Calvin Gage, Stanley Romanstein, Rick Bunting, and Daniel Gordon.
In addition to the permanent faculty, memorable performances have been given by such guest conductors as Franz Allers, Nadia Boulanger, Igor Buketoff, Sarah Caldwell, Stanley Chapple, Aaron Copland, Rodney Eichenberger, Alfred Gershfeld, Howard Hanson, Lukas Foss, Thor Johnson, Jan Meyerowitz, Charles O’Neill, Eve Queler, Vincent Persichetti, Helmuth Rilling, Adnan Saygun, Gunther Schuller, Robert Shaw, Michael Tilson Thomas, Virgil Thomson.
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