Educated in Perth, London and Glasgow, he was the recipient of a number of prizes and awards as a singing and conducting student, including the Lord Mayor of London singing prize and The Royal Scottish Academy Hugh S Roberton prize for conducting.
During the seventies he pursued a career as a singer of opera an oratorio, singing in the UK and with Australian Opera, Scottish Opera, Canberra Opera and West Australian Opera. At the same time he extended his conducting work especially with West Australian Opera of which he was Acting and Assistant Musical Director and Chorus Master, conducting Nabucco, The Marriage of Figaro, Dido and Aneas, The Medium, The Elixir of Love, Carmen, Amahl and The Night Visitors, Die Fledermaus, other productions and concerts. His singing roles include Figaro in The Barber of Seville, Zurga in Pearlfishers, Papageno in The Magic Flute and Dapertutto in The Tales of Hoffman, Masetto in Don Giovanni, Malatesta in Don Pasquale, Schaunard in La Boheme, Marullo in Rigoletto, The Minister in Fidelio, Junius in The Rape of Lucretia, Germont in La Traviata, Falke in Die Fledermaus, and Dancairo in Carmen.
He formed the Music Theatre Company of WA creating more opportunities for young people to work professionally. He was also Musical Director of UWA Choral Society.
After completing 13 years as Director of Music at John XXIII College, he took the position of Chorus Master of English National Opera and conducted a recording of Intermezzi and Preludes with the Philharmonia Orchestra in London.
Returning to WA, he again took up Musical Direction of the Music Theatre Company and the management and responsibility of the Philharmonia Orchestra. Major projects in this period were as Chorus Master for Edgley’s Production of Aida, conductor of La Traviata, La Boheme and Verdi’s Requiem for Regal Opera.
He is currently Managing Director of the Stage Door School of Performing Arts which he founded in 1996 to teach and promote singing and music theatre with young people.
Until 2003 Ian was a lecturer in singing in Music Theatre and Classical Departments at WAPPA and has been lecturer in singing at UWA and ECU Classical departments. He manages, promotes and conducts concerts with the Perth Lyric Chorale as well as teaching privately.
In 1998 he was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for his services to music in Australia as a performer and teacher.
The ICW Performing Arts Association (INC) is his new initiative with a goal of assisting youth and persons with disability in the performing arts.
ICW Productions has now become an established part of the WA Arts scene with its highly regarded quality productions of OLIVER, COMPANY, LES MISERABLES and CATS. In 2014 THE MIKADO, THE SOUND OF MUSIC and THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA were presented, with further productions of THE WIZ (Iona PC) and OKLAHOMA (MUSAE) 2015 and OLIVER (ICW Productions) 2016.
The Best of British concerts have also been revived under the banner of ICW productions and will continue into 2018.
He was most recently Guest Chorus Master of WA Opera Company’s season of Carmen.