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Posted by Mike Thomson
on November 27, 2008, 1:33 pm, in reply to "Re: Tony Lowry"
86.131.192.127
I only just happened on this thread about the pianist and prolific composer/arranger Tony Lowry. I have never been able to find out very much about him myself, but I do know that for a time he was Musical Director (perhaps latterly Advisor) to Cecil Bernstein's Granada Theatres. He was certainly there when the late Bryan Rodwell was a member of the circuit's superb team of organists during the first half of the 1950s. According to Bryan, Lowry's musical background included some contact (presumably as a student?) with Bela Bartok - certainly he was a high-powered figure.
As regards Lowry's collaboration with Donald Thorne, Thorne was also a Granada man. Pianist in the Staritas' Piccadilly Revels Band and the Jack Hylton Orchestra in the late 1920s, he turned his hand to the theatre organs and became a very well known broadcaster. Many organists wrote their own music (there was a market for light music plus you got broadcasting fees on it!) and Thorne was no exception. Tony Lowry's piece 'Doreen' is well known in the theatre organ world as signature tune for Doreen Chadwick, another Granada organist.
Rather sketchy, I'm afraid, but it might help to fill an informational gap!
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