Strony’s classical organ studies were with Herbert L. White[1] of the Sherwood Conservatory of Music Columbia College Chicago and Karel Paukert[2] at Northwestern University.
[4] During his college years he began playing the theatre organ in pizza parlors, a fad in the 1970s which gave new life to a largely forgotten instrument.
He has performed on numerous classical instruments as well, most notably having been featured in June 2009 at Macy's in Philadelphia (formerly Wanamaker’s) playing the largest operating pipe organ in the world.
[9] He has also recorded on the world’s largest theatre organ at the Sanfillipo Music Room in Barrington, IL.
[16] In the spring of 2008,[17] and in celebration of his career, the Allen Organ Company developed the Walt Strony Signature Model[18] - the STR-4 - which is a four-manual instrument.
Strony designed the stoplist and chose all the samples from their extensive library based upon his experience as an organist and tonal consultant.
[22] His first recording was made in 1976 at the Chicago Theatre, where he was the first organist to play that instrument on a semi-regular basis in 25 years.