Tag: theatre organ
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When a Whistle Isn’t a Whistle
I make mistakes during shows, and usually I’m the only one who notices. As an artist, often that’s all I come away with from a performance. On Tuesday I used the “toy counter” on the virtual Wurlitzer I often accompany silents with in a few spots, and one use undercut one of the gags, I’m…
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How to Play the Piano or Organ for a Halloween Silent Movie
As a fan and proponent of silent films, I’ve enjoyed seeing that every year at Halloween time, more and more shows of silent films are happening. It’s occurred to me that this means there are a lot of musicians accompanying a silent film for the first time and may be wondering how to go about…
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Hooray for Hollywood and the 2018 TCM Classic Film Festival
Three Songs You Won’t Hear During My Accompaniment to “Show People” — and Why One of the bugaboos in film accompaniment that my mentor Lee Erwin (1908-2000) had, and one I share, is the use of “song title puns”. In fact, anything that make an audience member’s brain say “Hey! She’s/he’s playing ______!” instead of…
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Newsday’s video on Cinema Arts Center’s “Anything But Silent” series
Newsday sent a videographer, as well as a reporter and a (still) photographer to last night’s show. The video piece is up on the Newsday website, and I’m posting/embedding it here. We show silent film once a month, always on 35mm and always with theatre organ accompaniment. In 2011 we presented: Picadilly, Why Worry, Battleship…
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talking with Joe Franklin
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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
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The Fall Cinesation is a great way for me to enhance my bag of tricks.
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(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. Listening to myself all the…
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was this sequence timed to music? could be…
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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. First time it popped up…
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orchestra and organ at the Egptian Theatre in Boise
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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!
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the complete “Metropolis” on May 7th
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Have just gotten the “OK” to announce my performance on Fri May 7 accompanying “The Complete ‘Metropolis’” at the Cinema Arts Centre in Huntingotn, NY (that’s on Long Island, folks). This is the new restoration with 25 minutes of lost footage restored. The C.A.C. is doing a one-week run of the picture, and I’ll be…