William Klenz was a music professor at Harpur College from 1965-1984, a composer, and cellist. Klenz composed classical music and performed the cello in Europe, South America, and the United States throughout his life. At Harpur College, Klenz was known for making music history accessible to his students, and his classes were popular with non-music majors.

William Klenz was born in La Connor, Skagit County, Washington on May 24, 1915. Klenz received his public school education in the San Francisco Bay area, California, and from 1927-31 attended the San Francisco Conservatory of Music on a scholarship to study violoncello, theory, and chamber music. After studying musical composition with Ernst Bacon from 1931-1932, he entered the Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, receiving the Bachelor of Music degree in 1938. From 1938 to 1942, Klenz was awarded a Graduate Assistantship at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. During this period, he concertized extensively and appeared with the North Carolina State Symphony. In 1940 he toured South America with the Youth Symphony under the baton of the eminent Leopold Stokowski. He was awarded Bachelor of Arts degree in 1940.

From 1942 to 1946 Klenz served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps in Europe where he presented recitals in Cambridge and Paris, and radio appearances at the National Gallery in London. He appeared on the Empire Network of the BCC and Radiodiffusion Francaise. His Te deum (1943), a work for large chorus and six brasses, was performed by the BBC Chorus on Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s death (1945) and for the end of the European conflict (1945). During 1945-1946, he studied Cello with Anthony Pini at Guildhall School of Music in London. In 1946 he returned to America to study theory and composition with Paul Hindemith at Yale University and chamber music with G. Piatiagorsky. He was appointed Assistant Professor of cello at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1946.

Klenz resumed his graduate studies in music at the University of North Carolina. He was awarded the Master of Arts degree in 1948 from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and began pre-doctoral studies in Italian libraries. In 1948, Klenz briefly returned to Europe when he was awarded the Summer Research Grant ACLS to visit Italy. Klenz continued to concertize in America as well as in Italy. In 1949, Klenz appeared in recitals at Yale, Harvard, and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and with North Carolina State Symphony. From 1951-52, he attended the American Conservatory (Fontainbleau), and the Conservatoire Nationale (Paris), where he studied violoncello with Paul Bazelaire and took classes from and appeared in performances and on recordings with Nadia Boulanger.

Klenz was appointed as an associate professor in Duke University's Department of Aesthetics, Art, and Music from 1947-1966. In 1955, Klenz left Duke University on sabbatical and resumed his graduate study at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1958, Klenz was awarded the Ph.D. in Musicology from this University. He was named Associate Professor by Duke University in 1960. In 1964, he gave lectures on music history and aesthetics at Harpur College, Binghamton, New York. He was appointed as Associate Professor of Music at SUNY, Binghamton in 1965. He was appointed as Full Professor in 1969. During his time at SUNY, he served as committee member of the Faculty Senate, Junior & Senior personelle committee and Graduate committee.

Klenz's publications include "G.M. Bononcin" Duke University Press, Oct. 1962, and also entries in "Encyclopedia of Music." The unpublished manuscript of William Klenz entitled "The Elements of Music Theory," 1960, was donated to the archives by a former student of Klenz.

Throughout his illustrious career as a performing artist, author, scholar, composer, and especially as a truly dedicated teacher, Professor Klenz never lost sight of the true meaning of music. A passage from a letter he wrote before retiring in 1984 truly reflects his great love of music, his devotion to his students, and his sense of humor: "The vocation itself I cannot leave, the bond is too strong and strengthened by too many ties, the particulars of which are embodied in the students I have been able to help are too strong. I am grateful to my colleagues for their generous designation as Professor Emeritus of Music which will remind me of my purpose and may even serve to keep me out of mischief."

He passed away at Wilson Memorial Hospital, Endicott, New York on February 24, 1988.