For three decades he led the "Ivan Romanoff Orchestra and Chorus" on a variety of radio and television programs for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, on commercial recordings, and in live concerts throughout North America.
As a child he performed in a mandolin orchestra and was a violin pupil of Alexander Chuhaldin, Chris Dafeff, Broadus Farmer, and Kathleen Parlow at the Toronto Conservatory of Music.
He began playing the violin in a number of radio orchestras conducted by Chuhaldin in the early 1930s and was at the same time actively performing in Toronto with Stanley St John's dance band.
The following year he worked for a short time as a violist for the Solway String Quartet and served as music director for CBC Radio presentations of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's May Night and C. Hulak-Artemowsky's The Cossack beyond the Danube.
Romanoff continued to lead his orchestra in performances up until his retirement in 1983, touring throughout Canada and the United States and making more than 10 commercial albums, many of them for RCI Records.