Performers

The TTOS is pleased to feature six extraordinary console artists for the 2006-2007 season: Richard Hills, David Peckham, David Wickerham, Ross McDonald, Clark Wilson, and Simon Gledhill.

For schedule information, click here.

	Richard Hills Richard was such a hit with our audience last year that he was the obvious choice of artist to introduce our new season! With a maturity and sense of style far beyond his years in both the classical and light music repertoires, Richard burst on the scene in 1995 and has been dazzling audiences ever since. Though he earns his daily bread on a classical bench, we're glad his first love is the theatre organ.
	David Peckham David's unique programs are the result of his constant search for new music to play on the theatre organ, whether a recent pop chart or an old forgotten melody. He balances his weekly church position with the family pipe organ service business and a busy concert schedule, and we delight in welcoming him back to Casa Loma for another evening of discerning dexterity.
	David 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 the 2005/2006 season. Dave also enjoys recording and has recently released his fourth CD "Sounds of Music" recorded on the famous 5 Manual, 80 Rank Theatre Organ at the Sanfilippo Residence in Barrington, IL. Additionally, there are two NEW recording projects that are soon to be completed and released. Currently, Dave and his family enjoy living in South Florida where he has recently accepted the position of Organist in Residence - Curator at the Milhous Museum in Boca Raton. The museum houses three pipe organs and a vast amassment of beautifully restored automated antique musical instruments and classic cars from the turn of last century.
	Ross McDonald Ross McDonald is a native of London, Ontario. he is well known as a classical and theatre organist and a church organist. He has performed in the USA and Canada, and performs regularly in Toronto at the Historic Casa Loma; on Canada's largest Wurlitzer theatre pipe organ. Ross also accompanies silent movies with live organ accompaniment. Ross has been a church musician for most of his life, and is currently organist and choir director at Trinity Lutheran Church in London.
	Clark Wilson A native of Ohio, Clark Wilson began his musical training at age nine. While growing up he accompanied numerous stage musicals and was organist at several churches. At this time he was listed in "Who's Who in the Midwest" and "Men of Achievement". He also holds Life Member status in the International Tri-M Music Honor Society and is listed in "Who's Who in Executives and Professionals". Following several years with the Schantz Organ Company as a reed voicer and tonal finisher, Clark's professional playing career began with his appointment to the featured organist post at Pipe Organ Pizza in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He has since been on the playing staffs at the Paramount Music Palace in Indianapolis, Indiana, Pipes and Pizza in Lansing, Illinois, and is currently associated with Organ Stop Pizza in Mesa, Arizona, where he is on the organ staff as well as having assisted with the planning and installation of the world's largest Wurlitzer organ. Clark's recording credits include seven albums. He has given all-transcription recitals for the AGO, played for the 1990 Organ Historical Society convention, and performed at numerous National and Regional conventions of the ATOS, as well as giving a series of highly lauded workshops for young people's Pipe Organ Encounters. He has also been a visiting lecturer on Theatre Organ and silent picture accompaniment for the Indiana University organ department, a great step in the advancement of these art forms. He has concertized in the United States, Canada, Australia, and England, and done extensive silent film accompaniment, including at the Chautauqua Institution in New York, the Packard Foundation's Stanford Theatre, UCLA, and the Fox Theatre for the Atlanta premier of the restored "Metropolis". He plays a silent picture annually on the organ series at LA's new Walt Disney Concert Hall, is scoring for Kino International for commercial release, and has performed at both the Cinequest and San Francisco Silent Film Festivals, as well as for the Los Angeles Conservancy . Clark is the resident organist and organ conservator at the famed Ohio Theatre in Columbus, Ohio (for the Columbus Association for the Performing Arts) and was chosen by them to repremier the renowned Chicago Theatre Organ on a bill that included Michael Feinstein. He also headed the professional crew that began restoration on the Chicago's landmark Wurlitzer. Along with a busy concert schedule, Wilson runs his own pipe organ business and is heavily in demand as a tonal consultant and finisher of both theatre and classical pipe organs; he has been given the singular honor of being brought to England multiple times for tonal finishing and consulting. He has received both the Technician of the Year and Organist of the Year awards from the American Theatre Organ Society, the only person to have done so, and his time is now nearly equally divided between concert and technical work. He has been professionally involved with more than 100 organ installations throughout North America and England and has provided consulting and voicing expertise for several different organ companies.
	Simon Gledhill Simon was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, UK in 1965 and showed a keen interest in music from an early age. He began learning to play the piano accordion shortly before his sixth birthday and continued with that instrument for eleven years, winning several competitions along the way. When he was ten, his parents purchased a small electronic organ. After initially teaching himself to play it, he commenced formal studies with a local teacher, Michael Woodhead, who gave him extensive tuition in classical organ and piano. Simon's first experience of the theatre pipe organ was hearing the late Ernest Broadbent play the Mighty Wurlitzer at Blackpool's Tower Ballroom. He subsequently discovered that a local, privately-owned instrument could be hired out by the hour, and began making weekly practice visits. In 1982 he entered and won the Northern Young Theatre Organist of the Year competition. Nigel Ogden, presenter of BBC Radio 2's The Organist Entertains, was in the audience, and invited him to make some recordings for the programme on the BBC theatre organ at the Playhouse Studio in Manchester. The broadcasts resulted in a flurry of concert offers, and Simon has since performed at all the major theatre organ venues in Britain, as well as touring in Germany, Holland, Australia, Canada and the USA. In America, he has played at such prestigious venues as the Chicago Theatre, the Oakland Paramount Theatre and Pasadena Civic Auditorium (where ex-Reginald Foort/BBC five-manual Möller theatre organ now resides). There have been 11 appearances at Annual and Regional Conventions of the American Theatre Organ Society, and Simon was honoured to accept the ATOS Organist of the Year award at the Society's 1997 Annual Convention. Simon's music has won high praise from his peers. Lyn Larsen said: '[He] is that rare combination of flawless technique, impeccable phrasing and an unerring sense of musical good taste.' And Nigel Ogden added: 'Here is someone who was born to be a theatre organist. His ability . . . has rightfully earned him the genuine admiration of both audiences and colleagues alike.' He combines his concert and recording activities with work for the Cinema Organ Society, Britain's leading theatre organ group, and a full-time career in corporate banking, based in London.