| Walt Strony | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1955 Chicago |
| Genres | silent film music classical music |
| Occupations | organist |
| Instruments | Wurlitzer pipe organ |
| Years active | 1974–present |
| Website | http://www.waltstrony.com |
Walt Strony (born 1955) is an award-winning American organist, both on the Wurlitzer theatre organ and traditional pipe organ.
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Walter Strony was born in Chicago in 1955. He made his public debut as an organist in 1974, aged 18.[1] During his college years he began playing the theatre organ in pizza parlors, a fad in the 1970s which gave new life to a largely-forgotten instrument.
He currently lives in Las Vegas, NV, where he is Artist-in-Residence at First Christian Church.
He has performed in the United States, toured extensively in Australia, England, Japan, and Canada, and he is a regular performer at conventions of the American Theatre Organ Society, having performed for them more than any other organist. He has also performed for the American Guild of Organists on both local and national levels.
In addition to solo concerts, he has performed with several symphony orchestras. In El Paso he played music including Symphony No. 3 (Organ) of Camille Saint-Saens.[2] He played at the Calgary International Organ Festival with the Calgary Philharmonic.[3]
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.[4]
His first performance at Radio City Music Hall in July 2007 was the first solo recital on the Mighty Wurlitzer there in many years. He played the pipe organ at New York City's Radio City Music Hall in 2008.[5] He has performed on numerous classical instruments as well, most notably having been featured in June 2009 at Macy's Philadelphia playing the largest operating pipe organ in the world.
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.[6] In 2011 he was inducted into the American Theatre Organ Society Hall of Fame. [7]
He has made numerous recordings and can be heard on over 30 albums. In celebration of his career, the Allen Organ Company developed the Walt Strony Signature Model [8] - the STR-4 - which is a four-manual instrument. Walt Strony designed the stoplist and chose all the samples from their extensive library based upon his experience as an organist and tonal consultant.
His book The Secrets of Theatre Organ Registration (1991) was the first book to be written about this subject. According to the New York Times, he "wrote what many theater organists consider the definitive guide" to Wurlitzers.[9]
In addition to musical performance, he works as an organ consultant, most notably for instruments built by the Allen Organ Company.