Dr. William Coale was a band/choir director and professional musician/conductor in Michigan before retiring in 2009 as a superintendent of schools and university professor. He started playing the theatre organ in the early 1970s, and studied with the late Fr. Jim Miller.

His work in the field of education and advanced studies took him away from the hobby for a decade, but upon finishing his Ph.D. in educational leadership, Bill purchased an Allen GW319 and quickly fell back in love with the hobby.

Bill moved to California upon retirement in 2009, and worked for Ed Stout and Dick Taylor for five years, as well as playing intermissions at the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland.

He spent four years doing extensive research that culminated in a 3-volume, 1500+ page biography  of legendary theatre organist George Wright.  Bill acquired BANDA during his research for the biography, and has issued a number of “new” George Wright recordings.

 Bill loves playing ragtime and marches on the theatre organ, and has recorded a CD on an Allen GW-4 once owned by Walt Strony. He has appeared in concert overseas at Saltaire, UK, in  Stockholm, Sweden, and twice on the “Gerhard Gregor” Welte in the NDR radio broadcasting studios in Hamburg, Germany. He moved back to his hometown in Michigan in 2023, and was hired as a staff organist at Ann Arbor’s Michigan Theater. He has also acquired a Style D Wurlitzer that will go in his new “Wurlitzerage” music building that is currently under construction.