Bill Crofut

Crofut was born in Cleveland, Ohio, attended the Putney High School and majored in music and literature at Allegheny College, where he took lessons on the French horn.

[4] In the 1960s he toured with singer, guitarist, and long-time friend Stephen Addiss (1935 - May 11, 2022) as part of the U.S. State Department's cultural exchange program; they would later collaborate on several albums.

In April 1963 Crofut and Addiss met with President Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert MacNamara at the White House, where they were awarded a citation for their work in the cultural exchange program.

[9] His last recording (Dance on a Moonbeam) is a compilation of children's songs with Frederica von Stade, Dawn Upshaw, Chris Brubeck, and the London Symphony Orchestra.

Crofut described the first time he heard Pete Seeger at a concert at Oberlin College in the 1950s: He spoke for those who could not speak for themselves ... His was the voice of the underdog, the conscience of youth, the power of conviction.

This is the story of African schoolchildren who came for miles to share a performance with them at the top of a hill in Kenya; of the playing to a chorus of artillery fire before Vietnamese villagers; singing to wounded students in Korea; reaching remote villages by bamboo rafts in northern Thailand; and teaching finger game songs to children in Nepal ...