The Theatre Organ Society of Australia - 2026 Christmas Show

Simon Ellis

Simon is a native of Sydney, and has a background in Philosophy, English, Law and Theology.
After initial piano studies from the age of 6, he studied organ with Robert Broughall and then with the late Eric Smith. He served as Assistant Organist to Eric at Wesley Central Mission for 6 years, and was regularly heard playing the Christie theatre organ in the Lyceum Theatre, playing for both church services, and before and after movies.

In later years, he was privileged to spend many occasions gaining experience and advice from the late Ashely Miller, who among his other achievements, was for many years one of the celebrated organists of Radio City Music Hall in New York.

Simon was Organist/ Choirmaster at Northmead Uniting Church for 9 years until the early 1980’s, and concurrently Director of Music at a large reception venue, Fairfield House, at Windsor. He also served several years as Associate Music Director for the Sydney Touring Theatre Company, and was Director of the highly successful Blue Mountains Consort for 6 years until 1998.

Simon has performed in both theatre and classical organ venues in many parts of Australia, America, Britain, and Europe. He has accompanied many singers and instrumentalists, both in Australia and overseas, and also studied singing with the late Florence Taylor. He has had a long involvement with the Royal School of Church Music, and served for 25 years as Senior Staff Organist for a large Sydney church until it’s closure at the end of 2025.

Glenn Amer

Glenn Amer was born in Sydney and studied at the Conservatorium of Music.
Invited to London at the age of thirteen to participate in the studios of Geoffrey Parsons (piano) and Erich Vietheer (voice), Glenn flew to London alone and had a wonderful time! This was the beginning of his love of international travel and to this date, Glenn has visited over 70 countries, some of them multiple times.

Glenn is an Headline Entertainer on all the great cruise lines. Touring with these companies has taken him all over the world and extensively throughout Australia. His unique style of piano playing has proved extremely popular with audiences who are also impressed with his rich and powerful voice.

He has been on staff of the Australian National Academy of Music, the Australian Institute of Music, Pacific Opera (as Artistic and Musical Director), and Opera Australia (as both conductor and pianist). He was also head of Piano at the Hume Conservatorium. In 2026, Glenn joined the University of Sydney/Conservatorium of Music as a casual academic.

A unique entertainer, Glenn Amer is the only artist in the history of recordings to have made acoustically recorded cylinders, pianola rolls and compact disks. His recordings have been released on Mastertouch Piano Rolls, Cylinders on The Vulcan Phonograph Company, and CDs on the EMI, Sony DSD, Ambition, Fanfare, Cre8ion, and ABC Classics labels.

Glenn’s latest release, The Great Piano Showman is now available at all JB Hifi stores.

Glenn is Organist and Director of Music to St Peter’s Anglican Church, Cremorne, and is a passionate collector of historic 78s and vintage cars. He is the Vice-President of the Organ Music Society of Sydney, the President of the Australian Collectors of Mechanical Musical Instruments and is on the board of directors of the Italian Opera Foundation Australia. He is an ordinary member of TOSA!
 

Cliff Bingham Cliff began classical organ studies in 1962 with Roland Stenton and Frank Taylor at St Matthew's Anglican Church, Manly. In 1964, in his final school year, he was organ soloist at the Festival of School Instrumental Music in the Sydney Town Hall, the first of many occasions on which he would be featured at that iconic instrument. His first meeting with a theatre organ was in 1959 at the West Ryde Christie. (Yes, the same organ TOSA has reinstalled in the newer church building.) Cliff was living in West Ryde at the time. His best mate at school was the Rector's son. This early encounter sparked such an interest that he joined TOSA NSW in 1962 and set about learning as much as he could about playing the theatre organ. Over the years, he has had a number of valued moments with some of the theatre organ greats. Standouts are Tony Fenelon at an 11pm to 4am session at the Melbourne Regent 4/19 in 1969, a two-hour session with Jonas Nordwall at the Portland Organ Grinder 4/44 in 1979 and a lovely dinner at the Rawle residence around Len's wonderful 4/24 Wurlitzer in 1985. Cliff has played numerous concerts in all Australian states and New Zealand on both pipe and electronic organs and was featured at many TOSA conventions. Since 'retirement' , Cliff has made an appearance along with good mates Simon Ellis and Titus Grenyer at the State Theatre, Sydney, Wurlitzer relaunch in February 2020.