Ben Model’s blog

  • I’ve found in numerous in Chaplin films that certaiin sequences and routines fit a musical beat and structure, that a bit of business will fit nicely an 8 or 16 bar phrase. It may have been an innate thing with Chaplin, and he may not have intended this at all.…

  • Here’s a rare 1927 comedy short that I’ve just scored and uploaded to YouTube. I used a virtual piano software from Native Instruments, and chose the Steingraeber upright instead of one of the grands (e.g. Steinway D), as it seemed like a good fit. Enjoy! Ben [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km4FowS0Xms&fs=1&hl=en_US]

  • I’ve just discovered that Naxos’ music download site, ClassicsOnline.com, has my chamber piece available. There are a few other sites that have the CD available, including iTunes, but you have to buy the whole CD to get my piece. On the Naxos site you can buy just my track, for…

  • Here are some photos I took of the Indian Lake Theatre in Indian Lake, NY. They brought me up to present and accompany Harold Lloyd’s “Safety Last” on Sunday, November 21st. The theatre was built in 1938 and was a summer-season-only movie theater, and continued to be so for the…

  • This very nice article appeared in the Nov 17-23, 2010 issue of the Lake Champlain weekly, a feature story promoting the “Safety Last” show I did for the Champlain Valley Film Society on Nov 20. In the CVFS’s 8-year history, the #2 and #3 ranking movies in terms of attendance…

  • I know, I know…it’s two months later, but anyway here is my video blog entry for my trip to Boise, ID in September. Enjoy!

  • Here’s a cool video profile on me, just posted on the Time Inc. website, and made by Jim Fields. This was shot in the early spring, but I will actually be playing for “Schreck” in December during MoMA’s “Weimar Kino” series. Enjoy! If you wanna see it on the Time…

  • Here is a new videoblog entry from my first day (back) in Tromsø, Norway. You’ll get to see what the Verdensteatret theatre looks like, and get a glimpse at one of the three shows we did for groups of 5th-graders.

  • Back from vacash, and hit the ground running. Prepping for travel to Tromsø, played for Diary of a Lost Girl (first time I used theatre organ since June!) at the C.A.C., book flights to Boise and Massillon, and had to print out and ship out a concert band score for…

  • A piece of chamber music I composed is now available on CD. The Palisades Virtuosi — an ensemble comprised of Margaret Swinchoski, flute, Donald Mokrynski, clarinet, and Ron Levy, piano — commissioned me to compose a ten-minute work for them back in 2005. The piece, entitled “The Spice of the…