Although the piano and organ share a standard black-and-white-note keyboard format, the instruments are vastly different; few musicians are able to have equal artistic and technical command over both of them.

Larry Douglas Embury presides over the thunder-and-whisper majesty of "Mighty Mo," the massive Möller organ that is the centerpiece of Atlanta's Fox Theatre - at 4600 seats, the largest grossing legitimate theatre in the country.

At the Fox Theatre, Embury is at the controls not just of the instrument itself, but of the lift which brings the organ platform up to the stage left level, to the delight of the audience. The great versatility of organ and organist creates all sorts of musical and sound effects; for silent film accompaniment, there are whistles of oncoming trains, auto horns, steamboat whistles, sleigh bells, an airplane, and many other sounds. When opening for the popular touring attraction, STOMP, Larry was both orchestra and percussion; for bass drum "hits," he had both feet flying.

In 2001, appearing at the Rainbow Room with his partner, Bob Van Allen, they opened for Bette Midler and Audra McDonald in a program called "Stella by Starlight" (which celebrated the 100th birthday of the legendary actress and teacher Stella Adler), Larry played the theme song of the event for an impressive gathering of New York's theatre community. Over the years, he has played for artists running the gamut from Ethel Waters to Tony Curtis to Jennifer Holliday.

In the summer of 2002, Larry was invited to become Organist in Residence at Atlanta's Fox Theatre. In this capacity, he played sixty-one performances from June to August. That September, he hosted and was featured in "Fox at the Fox," a twenty-second anniversary memorial concert in honor of the late great organist, Virgil Fox. At that time, Larry was named permanent Organist in Residence of the Fox Theatre, a prestigious position that the Fox had been unable to satisfy for nearly twenty years.

The touch that is needed for the piano -- an acoustic, non-sustaining instrument whose sound begins to die as soon as it sounds -- differs greatly from that of the organ -- a sustaining instrument whose sound continues as long as a key is depressed. But Larry maintains that he uses the same technique for both instruments. His trademark one-, two-, and three-finger glissandi, sliding up and down the keyboards of both the piano and organ, without changing hand position and without losing the skin of his fingers, is proof of a hand position so relaxed that he is able to have only feather-light weight on the keys.

Larry Douglas Embury's concept of sound, with both piano and organ, is orchestral. He visualizes the ensemble and, in his mind's ear, hears the instruments as he plays. Embury says that he often feels as much like a conductor as an instrumentalist. His beginnings as a church pianist, followed by nightclub improvisation and by performances as a church and theatre organist, allow him to move between the two instruments with fluency and technical mastery. With his ability to improvise in popular music, Larry says that he "plays the words, and the music -- lines and phrases -- follow."

Embury has combined his natural talent for improvising with formal classical studies. He graduated from King's College Academy and studied piano with the Canadian concert pianist Glen Geary. He went on to study organ with Dr. Raymond Cluderay of St. Andrew's Wesley Cathedral of the United Presbyterian Church, and with Dr. L. Allyne Swann at Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, Idaho; for two years, he studied with Richard Purvis, the noted composer and organist of San Francisco's Grace Cathedral.