Dan's Papers - September 12, 2008

You might know him as the guy who throws wild parties at his 15,000 square foot castle in Water Mill, but there is more, a lot more, to the man behind "Mr. Mitzvah" and "Sir Ivan" than meets the eye.

The true story of Ivan Wilzig is that of a man who, in the face of enormous family and social pressure, opts to follow his dream. Born into wealth as the son of German Holocaust survivor Siegbert Wilzig, Ivan found his place in the role of singer/performer promoting peace. His father spent more than a year and a half at Auschwitz, beginning at the age of 17. "Fifty-nine of my relatives were murdered by the Nazis," Ivan said in a recent interview. "One week my father survived by eating nothing but dandelions on a death march through Czechoslovakia. He was a survivor of two extermination camps in World War II. On the very last week of the war he was liberated by the American army in Mauthausen, Austria. At that point, at the age of 19, he weighed 90 pounds and had pneumonia. Just days before his liberation, his brother was murdered. After my father was nursed back to health he worked with the American counter intelligence and helped to arrest the brother of Hitler's propaganda master Goebbels. He then came to America with $150 in his pocket and took over the two most anti-Semitic businesses in America: building a banking and oil business."

Sir Ivan, influenced deeply by his father's story, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and later, the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. He spent the following 20 years working for The Trust Company of New Jersey, which eventually was sold to North Fork Bank (which is now Capital One). His father was the chairman of the board for The Trust Company of New Jersey. "While working at the bank I was more of a creative person and headed up business development and the marketing department, as well as public relations."

This was during the early '80s, at which time Ivan was negotiating leases and planning grand openings - he called that the fun part. "At the grand openings I got to throw a party, which is something I'm very good at, so they say," he said with a laugh.

Ivan would hire big sports celebrities to stand out in front of the bank and sign autographs to draw attention to the business. He also called upon soap opera stars to attend the openings. "Every opening would have a theme for the party and I would get dressed up. If it were a pirate theme, I'd dress up as a pirate. We would have floats; it was a fully catered affair. It wasn't your boring wine and cheese opening, this was more like a wedding or bar mitzvah."

Gaining a lot of attention and a lot of business for the bank allowed Ivan to enjoy success. But his passion was music and, without his father's knowledge, he was taking singing lessons. "I had to put on my suit and limit my artistic pursuits for the bank. My father knew about my passion for singing, but really wanted me to keep it as a hobby. He was worried that he had created this empire out of the ashes of Auschwitz and I was going to end up singing for pennies on the street."

Ivan finally pulled the trigger in 2000, deciding to give up his banking career and pursue his dream of becoming a singer. Using his marketing ability and talent, he released his first song, "Imagine," which was an electronic dance version of the John Lennon classic. Tom Silverman of Tommyboy record label was behind it, and the single made the Billboard charts. "I told my father that I made it to Billboard and had to explain to him that it was the Wall Street Journal of the music world to win him over."

All of Sir Ivan's songs revolve around peace, acceptance, kindness to others and tolerance. "All of my songs have to do with peace because of my family's history in Nazi Germany."

Ivan speaks decisively and passionately about philanthropy and giving. "I created the Peaceman Foundation, which gives proceeds from the sales of my records to charity. That's the kind of family I come from, a family of character and philanthropy."

His new record, "I Am Peaceman," is described by Ivan as rocktronica, which is guitar rock fused with electronic dance beats. It's a full album that Sir Ivan expects to be signed by next month. "All of my songs on my new album are from the '60s and have the universal message of peace, love, civil rights, environmental rights and a call to end injustice."

In celebration of the album, he plans on throwing his best party to date. "My next party will be next summer and will be the mother of them all. It is going to be called Castlestock for the 'I Am Peaceman Party' and it is going to be the culmination of my life's dream."

Ivan's party will of course be at his castle, which was built by him and his brother. "We wanted to build a house that would remind us of all the movies that we saw when I was a kid. That was where my name Sir Ivan came from."

His estate has been featured on many television networks, and when it came time for Ivan to get his stage name, Sir Ivan was an easy choice. In his new career, Ivan dedicates his time to working on his music and promoting peace. "A lot of people might think of me as this wild man, but you should never judge a book by its cover," he said. "You should read the book."