bio
Ben Model is one of the nation’s leading silent film accompanists, performing on both piano and theatre organ. Over the past 44 years, he has created and performed several hundred live scores for silent films.
Ben is a resident film accompanist at the Museum of Modern Art (NY) and at the Library of Congress’ Packard Campus Theatre, and is a regular at the TCM Classic Film Festival, the Kansas Silent Film Festival and at Capitolfest in upstate NY. His recorded scores can be heard on numerous Blu-Ray and DVD releases from Kino Lorber, Milestone Films and his own label Undercrank Productions, as well as on Turner Classic Movies. Ben’s Undercrank Productions has released many rare undiscovered gems of the silent era that have been out of circulation since the 1920s. These discs including films starring Marion Davies, Tom Mix, and Raymond Griffith, as well as lesser-known comedians such as Marcel Perez, Alice Howell, and Baby Peggy, all released through of a co-branding arrangement with the Library of Congress.
Ben is a regular accompanist at classic film festivals around the U.S.A. and internationally, and he performs at universities, museums and historic theaters. Ben is the producer and co-founder of The Silent Clowns Film Series, now celebrating it its 27th season in NYC. Ben has co-curated several silent film series for MoMA and co-curates a monthly silents series at the Cinema Arts Centre on Long Island.
Ben has composed orchestral scores for several silent comedy shorts which are performed annually by ensembles around the U.S. and Canada. In his capacity as archivist for the Ernie Kovacs collection, he has programmed three DVD box sets of Ernie Kovacs television shows and is co-editor of the book Ernie In Kovacsland, published by Fantagraphics Books in July 2023. . Ben is a Visiting Professor of Film at Wesleyan University, where he teaches a course on silent film history. His book The Silent Film Universe will be published on June 17, 2025.
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Ben was the first to take the silent film experience online during the COVID pandemic, launching The Silent Comedy Watch Party in mid-March of 2020. The show is a live-stream which Ben and film historian Steve Massa co-host from their apartments – Steve introduces silent era slapstick shorts and Ben accompanies them on his acoustic piano. The Silent Comedy Watch Party program was presented weekly on Sunday afternoons for free on YouTube throughout the pandemic in 2020-2022, before shifting to monthly streams. The show celebrated its 4th anniversary and 100th episode in March 2024, and is currently presented on a quarterly basis.
shorter bio
Ben Model is one of the nation’s leading silent film accompanists, performing on both piano and theatre organ. Over the past 44 years, he has created and performed thousands of live scores for silent films at universities, museums, and historic theaters, and is one of the few exponents of this craft who is working at it full-time. Ben is a resident film accompanist at the Museum of Modern Art (NY) and at the Library of Congress’ Packard Campus Theatre, and he accompanies silents at classic film festivals around the USA and internationally.
Ben’s Blu-ray/DVD label Undercrank Productions works with archives and collectors to bring undiscovered gems of silent cinema to fans. Ben is a Visiting Professor of Film at Wesleyan University. His book The Silent Film Universe will be published on June 17, 2025. silentfilmmusic.com @silentfilmmusic
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contact and social
- send an email
- Ben’s “Silent Film Music Podcast“
- Ben’s social media — tag him at @silentfilmmusic
- Ben’s blog
- website for The Silent Comedy Watch Party; the show’s 100+ episodes are archived on YouTube
photos
Click each image to download in hi-resolution.
video
Interview/profile video feature on Ben Model from The New Yorker:
Gilbert Gottfried narrates a silent film sequence and Ben Model improvises the score. From Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast:
Ben Model improvises 4 mins of silent movie music live on the air on Kansas Public Radio:
Harold Lloyd in Hey There (1918)
Ben Model deconstructs a Buster Keaton silent film: