BIOGRAPHY

Photo Courtesy of Wayne Ivany

David Ivory has worked as a musician in the entertainment industry for well over 50 years.

As a youth he played church organ. His last church appointment was as the organist and choirmaster of the large parish church of St Mary’s, Bury St Edmunds, which in those days maintained a choir of 16 boys and 10 men. David also served for many years as the organist of the Norwich University of the Arts, during this time David gave the first performance of a piece of avant garde organ music commissioned by the University. Amongst the 700 people present at St Andrews Hall, Norwich to hear it were the Bishop of Norwich, The Sheriff of Norfolk and the Principal of the Royal Northern College of Music.

Whilst working in London David became the Saturday night organist of a Bingo Hall in the east end. The building had been a cinema and still contained its original Wurlitzer pipe organ, complete with lift. It was there that several influential people heard David play which resulted in him receiving numerous concert bookings. He also toured the clubs with a Hammond organ, undertook session work and demonstrated electronic ’home organs’ for a large East Anglian chain of music shops.

As well as recitals David is very well known for his sensitive accompaniment of silent films. Silent film is something of a family tradition - his grandfather ran an 800 seat “Kinema" in the East Midlands throughout the 1920s.

He has made many appearances on radio and television and had the honour of being elected Patron of the Theatre Organ Club. He played organ professionally for both Granada Theatres and the Rank Organisation, was soloist at the 2015 London Gala of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, and has appeared as organ accompanist at the Whitby 'Goth' Festival's evenings of silent Gothic Horror films.

For 35 years David was the resident organist at the Mechanical Music Museum, Cotton, Suffolk and is now the principal organist at the Grange Musical Collection, Palgrave, Suffolk.