CLAY BOLAND JR.
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Meet Clay Boland Jr.
AKA Professor B
He then became a teacher at Northampton College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (1969-1973) and later at Colorado Mountain College in Glenwood Springs, Colorado (1973-1995). ​
While teaching at Colorado Mountain College, he played solo piano at the historic Hotel Colorado, participated in jazz and classical concerts, and appeared as soloist with orchestra performing Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, Grieg's A minor Concerto, and Mozart's Concerto in G major. ​
In recent years, he has made a number of piano solo CD's, including Our Love Is Here To Stay, Love Walked In, As Time Goes By, It Had to Be You, I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter, I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby!, A Currier & Ives Musical Sampler, and Heartsong.
He has also published books of piano solo arrangements, including Favorite American Folk Songs, Hymns, and Spirituals, Volumes I & II, and two books of original songs and piano solos: Evocations of the America of Currier & Ives (available on Spotify), and Heartsong.
Clay Boland Jr. graduated from the University of Pennsylvania where he wrote songs for and performed in the Mask and Wig shows. ​
After graduation, he spent 15 years in the heart of New York City's theatrical district working as songwriter, arranger, and pianist, and earning an M.A. at The City College of New York, and also completing all his doctoral studies at The City University of New York. ​
During these years he wrote the words and music for two summer stock musicals, Clarence (adapted from Booth Tarkington's 1918 play) and New Bridge Acomin' (about the Irish workers who helped build the Brooklyn Bridge), a summer stock review, You Gotta Keep Punchin', and three off-Broadway children's musicals: Christopher Fish (performed at Steinway Hall and optioned for TV) and The Peppermint Players' Jack and the Beanstalk and Pinocchio (performed at the Martinique theater and recorded on LP records -- both of which can be heard on YouTube). ​
Dr. Sigmund Spaeth, the famous "song detective" and authority on American popular music, praised his songwriting in a Fall 1960 article in The New York Times, calling him "a genius." ​
He had a Robert Burns' musical, Green Grow The Rashes, optioned for Broadway, but when the producer wanted it converted into a "bawdy romp," he disagreed and decided to finish his graduate studies and become a college teacher.
His last musical, with words by Stephen Brown, was Things to Hear; Things to See, a Huckleberry Finn musical presented at The Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1969 and optioned for a TV special.