Bill Krause, Ph.D., joined Hollins University after several years in arts administration, notably as the executive director of Opera Roanoke. He found the best of all possible worlds teaching guitar, music history, and arts administration. His began his career as a classical guitarist, studying in Spain with José Tomas after earning his BFA from the University of Southern California, where he also received a Master of Music and embraced musicology. After earning his doctorate at Washington University in St. Louis (the alma mater of his spouse, Judith Cline) and he embarked on a career in arts administration.

Krause generously supported Hollins and its community with his talent, intellect, and kindness. From 2019 to 2022, he served on the University’s Working Group on Slavery and Its Contemporary Legacies, a group of faculty and administrators charged with educating the public about Hollins’ historical connections to enslavement and the contemporary legacies of slavery on campus. His courses were known for infusing fun and his trademark musical curiosity across genres, including his First-Year Seminar class, Taking the Crooked Road Through Virginia’s Musical History, a bluegrass-inspired historical, musical, and culinary journey. In 2013, he published Federico Moreno Torroba: A Musical Life in Three Acts (Oxford University Press).

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