The Toronto Theatre Organ Society

Dave WickerhamDave Wickerham

Dave Wickerham was born in Encino, California in 1962. He began playing the electronic organ at the age of four and had his first pipe organ experience at age10. His musical education started at age 7.

When he moved to Arizona in 1976, he became Associate Organist at the famous Organ Stop Pizza Restaurants in Phoenix, Mesa and Tucson. While in Arizona, he continued his musical studies with Roseamond Crowley, one of the few remaining descendants of the Louis Vierne line of organists. He attended the University of Arizona in Tucson on a full scholarship, pursuing classical organ studies for six years with Dr. Roy Johnson.

In 1984, Dave moved to the Chicago area to become Staff Organist at Pipes and Pizza in Lansing, Illinois. In addition to his performance there, he concertized frequently, as well as ministering musically and serving at various churches.

August of 1990 found the Wickerham family – Dave, his wife and two young children - moving to Wisconsin, where he was one of the featured Staff Organists at the Piper Music Palace in Greenfield, a position he held for 10 years.

In the spring of 2000, Dave ushered in the new millennium with a limited special engagement, as a featured organist at "Roxy's Pipe Organ Pizzeria", part of a $26,000,000 expansion phase at the FIESTA Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Wickerham's, Dave, Rhonda, and now three great kids, spent a year and a half there before returning back home to Wisconsin in August of 2001… For the next three years, Dave resumed his position at the Piper Music Palace and was also the Principal Organist at Williams Bay Lutheran Church in Lake Geneva, WI.

He enjoys concertizing frequently to many audiences including various chapters of the American Theatre Organ Society. In April of 1999, he took great pleasure being a feature artist in Melbourne, Australia for the convention of the Theatre Organ Society of Australia for which he received rave reviews. He returned “Down Under” for a five-week concert tour in New Zealand and Australia during the summer of 2003 and has been asked to come back to repeat the same complete tour in a near future season.

Dave also enjoys recording and has recently “sold out” his fourth CD “Sounds of Music” recorded on the famous 5 Manual, 80 Rank Theatre Organ at the Sanfilippo Residence in Barrington, IL. There are two NEW recording projects that are soon to be completed and released.

For some years, Dave and his family enjoyed living in South Florida where he was Organist in Residence - Curator at the Milhous Museum in Boca Raton. Before going to auction in February 2012, the museum housed three pipe organs and a vast amassment of beautifully restored automated antique musical instruments and classic cars from the turn of last century.

He is currently Organist-in-Residence at the restored Crystal Theatre located in Crystal Falls, Michigan in Iron County, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. This historic theatre built in 1927 has been serving the community since July 1991 as a performing arts centre presenting everything from local school drama plays to instrumentalists, bands, singers, talent shows and organ concerts performed at the console of its impressive Moeller Theatre Pipe Organ.

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