Ben Model’s blog

  • I was interviewed by the one and only Joe Franklin for his radio show a week or two ago, and the segment aired today on his weekly segment on “Bloomberg on the Weekend” on WBBR-AM and on Sirius XM radio. Listen to my appearance on the radio with Joe here:http://www.google.com/reader/ui/3523697345-audio-player.swf

  • (scroll down for photos…) Sharing accompaniment duties with Phil Carli at the Fall Cinesation every year is one way I stay fresh as an accompanist. Listening to someone else’s playing – especially someone whose style and philosophy mirrors mine – helps me push the boundaries of my own scoring vocabulary.…

  • I spent a great week in Tromsø, Norway (it’s above the arctic circle, cartographers) last week. I shot video and, while I’m waiting for it to get developed, here’s a radio segment on the “Stumfilmdager” festival (“Silent Film Days”) recorded at one of the senior centers I presented a program…

  • One of the perks of accompanying silent films is the opportunity afforded to discover directors whose work you have heard of or seen a little of…by playing for a retrospective series of their films. In May 2009 I accompanied several silents in a retro at MoMA of French director Julien…

  • In honor of Harold Lloyd’s birthday, I’ve uploaded a fun, rarely seen early “glasses” one-reeler with Harold to my YouTube channel. I scored this in 2008 for the American Slapstick 2 DVD set from AllDay Entertainment. The set is still in print and you can order the whole 3-disc set…

  • I sit about ten feet from the screen when I play for Chaplin’s “The Immigrant” at the Museum of the Moving Image at their education programs. Watching this film in a sharp 35mm print several times every year, I’d started thinking about the shot of the rocking boat in the…

  • Here’s my latest video blog. Take a ride to and from the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria with me on the N and the R as I head out to play for a school group screening of Charlie Chaplin’s “The Immigrant”.

  • Here’s a new installment of my video blog, in which we visit the historic Eldridge St Synagogue for a Max Davidson show, the 1938 Indian Lake Theater and “Safety Last”, and the gala re-opening of the Museum of the Moving Image.

  • 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]