Recital
An Evening at the Fox
7/6/2020 9:00 PM – 11:00 PM
It is not often that one gets paid to have fun for a living. It is rarer still when having fun and getting paid for it professionally happens twice in life. Such has been the good professional fortune of Ken Double, the President and CEO of the American Theatre Organ Society.
Until recently, music was always the “second career,” almost an afterthought due to his 32 years in broadcasting. The Chicago-native grew up with five brothers in a sports-loving family, but Ken was more enamored of the play-by-play announcers than he was the athletes, and as early as age six, was mouthing the words sitting in front of the television, “practice” broadcasting the games he watched.
While Ken pursued his broadcast career, he continued playing the organ. He has been the Master of Ceremonies for no fewer than 18 ATOS annual and regional conventions. He has performed concerts at nine annual and regional convention events. He has toured Australia and New Zealand four times. And in addition to his hundreds of concerts since his debut in Ft. Wayne, IN in 1978, he has a dozen recordings to his credit, including his latest two – Tribute, which features Ken at the 3/66 Dickinson Kimball with trumpet soloist Skip Stine – a much-heralded, widely acclaimed recording; and The House Organist Plays, recorded on the Hulko residence organ in Carversville, PA.
He accepted the top post at ATOS in the summer of 2007, and a year later, the Board of Directors asked Ken to accept the newly created position of President and CEO. He has been working diligently to raise funds, raise awareness, create new and exciting programs, and help steer the 55-year-old organization in a new direction to ensure its growth and existence for another 55 years and more.
Broadcaster, musician, entertainer, MC, administrator, PR man, and even “crooner” occasionally, Ken Double has enjoyed “having fun and getting paid for it, not once, but twice!” As the song says, “Nice work if you can get it.”