Bruce went on from Bible College to study voice at Brandon University and through a series of straining vocal events (culminating in a high velocity car accident) lost his singing voice entirely. Before the loss Bruce’s vocal coach classified him as a “Lyric Baritone”.
It had been several years since Bruce’s accident and he still could not sing, so Bruce sought out Mr. Pierce (a retired music teacher in his late 80’s) to see if he could help.
Mr. Pierce did an initial assessment of Bruce and was confident that he could help. Unlike Bruce’s vocal coach at Brandon University, Mr. Pierce was reasonably sure that Bruce was not a baritone, but a Tenor.
Bruce’s voice had collapsed to the point where he could not make a sound above an F above middle C (whereas , pre-accident, he could do scales up to an A). Mr. Pierce worked slowly and steadily with Bruce using the techniques that he discovered from researching the old Masters from the "golden age of singing". These techniques were unlike anything Bruce had encountered thus far, but has since learned of two European vocal coaches of renowned who, through their own research, devised similar techniques as Mr. Pierce.
After about 2 years of nothing but vocal exercise and physical exercise (to deal with his injuries from his car accident) something astounding happened! Bruce’s voice, in one lesson, opened up and he sang his scales up to a high C! Subsequent lessons had his scales reach even higher.