Dr. William Gibbons to Lead SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music
SUNY Potsdam is proud to welcome Dr. William Gibbons as the new dean of The Crane School of Music, overseeing its renowned programs and continuing the tradition of innovation that stretches back to Crane’s founding in 1886.
“The field of music and music education looks different than it ever has before. The world is changing at an incredibly rapid pace, and higher education has to keep up. We have to offer programs that engage with what students want and need to learn about, not just today, but for the world 10, 20, 30 years from now—programs that support people through their career, no matter where it takes them,” Gibbons said.
Gibbons joins Crane after spending a decade at Texas Christian University, where he taught in the School of Music and served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Fine Arts. As an administrator, Gibbons is driven by a passion for relevant, inclusive approaches to the arts. He has frequently collaborated with major arts organizations, and lectured and taught courses on arts leadership and entrepreneurship.
“As I have had the great privilege of taking on this role, I am really focused on keeping the core of what has made Crane great historically—like our strong music education and performance programs—while looking at ways to expand that vision for the future. We have an excellent music business program, for example, and I’m interested in developing other programs to ensure that students are well-equipped to be successful leaders in music and music-related fields,” Gibbons said.
Growing up, Gibbons played the piano and is a self-described lifelong “choir nerd.” He completed his bachelor’s degree in music at Emory & Henry College, with a focus on piano. He earned his Ph.D. in musicology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His award-winning research mostly centers on the cultural history of classical music, and on music in contemporary media.
“Somewhere in the middle of piano lessons, my teacher suggested that I take the musicology path, and that was it for me. I’ve always been interested in the big questions… what are we doing, and what does it all mean? That extends to everything,” Gibbons said. “So, I have studied opera in France, but at the same time I have always been a big video gamer. At some point in grad school, I realized big things were going on in video game music, so I pivoted to studying that. We have to think about how people experience music, and get them to be educated consumers of media, whether that’s classical music, or whether they mostly get their music through film, video games or TV.”
Gibbons is the author of two books, “Unlimited Replays: Video Games and Classical Music” and “Building the Operatic Museum,” and coedited the essay collections, “Music in Video Games: Studying Play” and “Music in the Role-Playing Game: Heroes & Harmonies.”
“The Western canon of music is so important, and I don’t think we’ll ever lose sight of that. But I see this as a ‘both/and’ situation, where we encourage our students and our audiences to expand their borders and explore—engaging with new music in different ways, and showing how our lives can be enriched by embracing a wide range of musical styles, time periods and places,” Gibbons said.
As he has taken the helm at the height of the semester and during Crane’s busy concert season, Gibbons is getting a front row seat to the performance opportunities the School provides, benefiting not only students and faculty, but the greater community.
“It’s so rare and so beneficial to have this world-class school of music in this remote rural area… Crane truly is a gem for this region. The relationship between Crane and the community is a really powerful one,” he said. “We really are the front porch for the university, and we take pride in that, as we invite the community to come onto our campus and have these magical Crane moments.”
About The Crane School of Music:
Founded in 1886, SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music has a long legacy of excellence in music education and performance. Life at Crane includes an incredible array of more than 300 recitals, lectures and concerts presented by faculty, students and guests each year. The Crane School of Music is the State University of New York’s only All-Steinway institution and was one of the first Yamaha Institutions of Excellence. For more information, please visit www.potsdam.edu/crane.
General News Arts & Culture Campus Announcements