He was educated at the Commercial School and Owens College, Manchester, and studied music under (later Sir) Frederick Bridge and Henry Hiles.
In order to achieve this, he raised subscriptions totalling £5,000 over five years to employ a Professor of Music, and of 19 applicants in 1884 Joshua Ives was selected and took up the position in March 1885.
He was also to replace T. H. Jones as City Organist; his first recital at the newly enlarged Town Hall instrument was on 9 April 1885, and was well, if not ecstatically, received.
[5] The financial position was unsupportable, and other sources of funds were sought, and Professor Ives instituted a scheme of public examinations, the first in Australia, the fees of which were used to support the Chair.
The examinations, modelled on those of the Guildhall School of Music in London, became very popular and not only contributed largely to the faculty's finances, but led directly to an improvement in the standard of teaching in the colony.
[8] Ives was well known as a speculator on the Stock Exchange, and not averse to litigation: when "Harry" Evans's clever satirical weekly Quiz recounted some quite pungent gossip about his (as "the organ-grinder"; the "hurdy gurdy man") rocky relationship with the stockbrokers of the city,[9] he was quick to sue for libel.
His farewell speech, which was largely boycotted by academic staff, but well received by students, poured contumely on the Chancellor, Sir Samuel Way, and his "henchman" Dr. W. Barlow, the Vice-Chancellor.
[13] The post of City Organist was in 1891 awarded to William Richard Pybus (1848–1917), in preference to T. H. Jones (1858–1929), one of Ives's supporters, though more experienced (he was the previous incumbent) and arguably the better musician.
[15] Of Ives's staff and colleagues, Immanuel Gotthold Reimann (c. 1858–1932), from whose School of Music the Conservatorium was formed, was its most durable member.