who is Walt Strony

Walt Strony (born 1955) is an American recording, consulting and performing organist and organ teacher on the theatre and traditional pipe organ, ranging from pizza parlours to churches and theatres to symphony orchestras. His theatre organ teacher was Al Melgard, famous as the Staff Organist on the Barton organ at the Chicago Stadium. When Melgard retired in 1975, he gave Strony his Oak Park, IL, teaching studio. He made his public debut as an organist in 1974, aged 18. During college, he began playing the theatre organ in pizza parlours, a fad in the 1970s that gave new life to a largely forgotten instrument. Strony has studied with silent-film accompanists and has accompanied silent films for years, such as The Phantom of the Opera (1925 film) and Nosferatu at the Plaza Theatre (El Paso). He has performed in the United States, toured extensively in Australia (1978), England (1989), Japan (Expo '75 & 2011), and Canada (1999), and he is a regular performer at conventions of the American Theatre Organ Society. In 2012 he played his 39th ATOS convention, more than any other organist. He played there again in 2008. He has also performed for the American Guild of Organists locally and nationally. He has performed on numerous classical instruments as well, most notably having been featured in June 2009 at Macy's in Philadelphia (formerly Wanamaker's), playing the largest operating pipe organ in the world. He has also recorded on the world's largest theatre organ at the Sanfillipo Music Room in Barrington, IL. In El Paso, he played music, including Symphony No. 3 (Organ) of Camille Saint-Saëns. He played at the Calgary International Organ Festival with the Calgary Philharmonic. Additionally, he has performed with the Allentown Symphony and Symphony Silicon Valley. While in college, he performed the Poulenc Organ Concerto with the Chicago Businessman's Orchestra. In 1991 and 1993, the American Theatre Organ Society selected him as "Organist of the Year." He is the only living organist to have received this award twice. In 2011 he was inducted into the American Theatre Organ Society Hall of Fame. In the spring of 2008, and celebrating his career, the Allen Organ Company developed the Walt Strony Signature Model - the STR-4 - a four-manual instrument. His book The Secrets of Theatre Organ Registration (1991) was the first book to be written about this subject. In addition to musical performance, he works as an organ consultant, most notably for instruments built by the Allen Organ Company. In collaboration with Allen Organs and the ATOS, he and four other artists recorded a five-DVD instructional video entitled "The Art of Playing Theatre Organ".