Timothy Crane - The Other Life I Dream (2004)

Timothy Crane is a composer and recording artist living near beautiful Denver, Colorado. From the time he started at the age of five, playing the piano has been the most enduring part of Tim's life. In a way, he was born into it. Tim learned to play on a piano that was handed down from his great aunt, who accompanied the silent pictures during matinees at the Jayhawk Theater in Topeka, Kansas. The stories about that piano, a 100 year-old Knabe, and about his ancestors who played it, kept Tim interested enough to practice when his friends and the weather tempted him to do otherwise.

Throughout high-school and college Tim played in a variety of local bands and also as a solo piano player. After college he continued to play for public functions, private parties, and charitable events as a solo act and in a number of often oddly-named musical groups. While living near Aspen, Colorado, he studied music theory and composition while playing each week for his local church. "That was a wonderful time in my life," he says. "Still," he jokes, "an awful lot of the songs that I played for offerings were pop songs that needed to be sanctified."

In the past two years, Tim has embarked on a new path in his music career -- recording his original music. This summer, Tim released his first album, The Other Life I Dream, a collection of piano instrumental pieces with an orchestra background. He continues to compose, and has recently completed writing the pieces that will form the core of his second album, Dragonfly.