Gene DiNovi wrote his first important song, “Have a Heart”, with the great Johnny Mercer. Percy Faith, Nancy Wilson, Doris Day and Dinah Shore have all recorded his songs. Maurice Chevalier's last TV Special features a song DiNovi wrote with his lyricist Bill Comstock, 'Tout va bien'. He has recorded innumerable CDs, both in North America and abroad, and all have been well received, including a brilliant re-issue of his "The Scandinavian Suite", indisputably a DiNovi masterwork. 
DiNovi's easy-going style and engaging warmth made him a great favourite with audiences on CBC radio and television and on TV Ontario where his last program The Music Room explored the music and lives of the great American songwriters. With the award-winning classical clarinetist James Campbell, he created the popular "Jazz in a Classical Key". 
Throughout the 1960s DiNovi was in Hollywood where, through mutual friends, he met producer Louis Eldeman (who had produced James Cagney's White Heat, among other memorable films) by whose agency DiNovi was soon involved in television production as an arranger/composer. He worked principally on the Sheldon Leonard-Danny Thomas shows, all of which were produced by Desi-Lu studios. It was at Desi-Lu that DiNovi met producer-arranger-composer Harry Ruby, who sponsored him into 
ASCAP, The American Society of Composers and Publishers. Gene began his musical life as a jazz pianist on 52nd Street - New York 's legendary "Swing Street" - in 1945. It was a remarkable and life-changing journey for the fifteen-year-old DiNovi from hanging around outside the clubs, listening raptly to the music of Art Tatem, Lester Young and Billie Holiday, to his being invited to sit in with them. Among the first to recognize DiNovi's musical potential was the great Dizzy Gillespie who gave the youthful pianist his Be-Bop baptism. "Come up here and play", Gillespie said to him one night - and the rest, as they say, is history. To make it a genuine baptism of fire, Charlie Parker sauntered around the corner of the bandstand - already playing - and sat in as well! It wasn't long after this fantasy-like beginning to his jazz career, that DiNovi was playing and recording with Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Buddy Rich, Chubby Jackson and Boyd Raeburn. Though self-taught in his beginning period, he went on to study music with Mario Castelnuovo Tedesco and Mario di Bonaventura as well as piano study with Jacob Gimpel.

DiNovi's love for and understanding of the popular song became strongly evident during the 1950s. His playing during these years attracted the attention of singers such as Peggy Lee, Tony Bennett and Lena Horne. 
In fact, DiNovi was in demand by just about every great singer of that era, each of them wanting his backing as a musical director. It was through these stellar performances that DiNovi came to know and work with the finest songwriters such as: Harold Arlen, Jimmy Van Husen and Harry Warren. DiNovi's interest in writing songs was kindled during this period. 
Two recent musical events are a tribute to the richness and variation of Gene DiNovi's musical career. In the winter of 1997, The Smithsonian Institute conducted a life-history interview with Gene for two long days. DiNovi does concerts, seminars and classes at many universities (e.g., Indiana University,

Texas A&M, and the Orford Art Centre). Mr. DiNovi has recently completed the score (with Gary Michael Dault) for Alice in the Orchestra, a musical entertainment for actors and symphony orchestra currently in production with a number of major musical organizations throughout North America. You can also visit www.aliceintheorchestra.com to see and hear the chamber orchestra version of this new work. 
September 25, 2005 marked the date for the symphonic world premier by the Winnipeg Symphony 
Orchestra with DiNovi conducting. Gene DiNovi has two daughters living in Los Angeles; Denise DiNovi Taylor and Michelle DiNovi Sawelson. He has three grandsons; McNeil Christian Taylor, Nicholas Eugene Taylor and Alex Patrick Sawelson. Gene resides in Toronto, Canada with his wife Deirdre and son William Desmond DiNovi