Silent Orchestra

Salome at Smithsonian American Art Museum

Silent Orchestra was interviewed by Allison Jessing of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

photo (c) Bruce Guthrie

2010

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Back in the day, (over 2,000 years ago) King Herod went Gaga over this Lady.  2010 marks the return of Salomé!

Saturday, August 7, 2010, 3 – 4:30pm
American Art Museum, Portrait Gallery, McEvoy Auditorium (enter from G Street)
Free tickets are distributed in the G Street Lobby 30 minutes before the program begins.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery present the classic film Salomé (1923, 75 min) with a score performed live by Silent Orchestra.  Regarded as one of America’s first art films, Salomé is adapted from an Oscar Wilde play that retells the saga of King Herod and his execution of John the Baptist to please his stepdaughter Salomé.

More details on the Smithsonian web site.

Check out this great picture by Bruce Guthrie from our Nosferatu performance at AFI Silver last year.  (photo © 2009 Bruce Guthrie)

You can see more pictures from this event at Bruce Guthrie’s web site.

October 2009

2007-2008: Nosferatu at AFI Silver

Silent Orchestra returned to AFI Silver for what has become an annual event. The crowds keep growing. After ten years of performing our Nosferatu score in public, it just never gets old for us. We’ve added new music in a few places and are constantly evolving our interpretation with improvisation. James White has been with us as MC since the beginning and is an audience favorite.

2006: Nosferatu at AFI Silver

Silent Orchestra returns to AFI Silver with two shows on October 27. This year we are adding some chilling new sounds and some updated arrangements. This film still amazes and inspires us after more than eight years and probably over 100 viewings.

The AFI Silver screening of Nosferatu was selected again in The Washington Post’s Here & Now.

2005: Nosferatu at AFI Silver

This is a beautiful theater and a fantastic room for us. Both shows were even more special thanks to James White (WAMU’s host of All Things Considered) who gave us a powerful and haunting introduction.

The AFI Silver screenings of Nosferatu with Silent Orchestra were featured in The Washington Post’s picks of upcoming arts events. The Post Express paper also ran an interview with us.

Salomé at the Avalon

In June of 2005 we performed our Salomé score at the Avalon Theater in Washington DC. The show was a huge success and we really enjoyed playing the score we premiered at the National Gallery of Art. A warm thank you goes out to the fantastic staff at the Avalon and Connie Poole of Conduit Productions who had the vision to put us into her series of local film maker nights at the Avalon. If you haven’t been there in a while, you owe it to yourself to see this magnificent old theater. We also have to thank Marcus Esposito (the “Punkrawk Soundman”) who made us sound better than ever. Look for CDs of our scores to Salome and Nosferatu in the near future.

2004

Murnau Films at the National Gallery of Art

F.W. Murnau

October of 2004 was a very busy month for us as we prepared music for screenings of three films by FW Murnau at the National Gallery of Art. The weekend got off to a great start with a “critic’s pick” in the Washington Post Weekend section and a fabulous write-up by Washington Post critic Desson Thomson.Faust (1926) is based on the well known Germanic tale and was Murnau’s last film for UFA. At almost 2 hours in length, this was our most complex and challenging score to date. Next up was the 1924 film, The Last Laugh, which had the audience in stitches for the dramatic plot changes in the last reel.

Although we’ve played Nosferatu on many occasions, it was a very special playing it for the diverse standing-room-only crowd at the Gallery.

Savannah Film Festival

We played for a capacity crowd of about 1200 students and festival attendees at the 2003 Savannah Film Festival. The festival is sponsored by the film department of the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) and our sponsors included distinguished professors of the Sound Design Department. We shared a discussion panel on sound design with Dane Davis, sound designer for the Matrix films and were invited to host a class in sound design, which was not part of the festival.

2003

French Films at the National Gallery of Art

We made our return to the National Gallery of Art in January with two films by Marcel L’Herbier. It was sponsored in part by the French Embassy and culminated in a rousing ovation for our accompaniment to L’Inhumaine.

L’Homme du Large (1920) is a dramatic tale of one family’s struggles for identity in a small fishing village. L’Inhumaine (1924) was the last Impressionist film produced in France and features some outlandish sets and an equally hyperbolic script. The story revolves around a singer named Claire and her would-be suitors. It’s a whirling mix of drama, musical, science fiction and mystery. As usual, our scores were mostly new compositions and a bit of improvisation to keep it spontaneous.

L’Inhumaine was the perfect opportunity to work with a guest musician. Susan Lowell is a singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist with a background in jazz, blues, folk, world and musical theater. We made use of her versatility as both a singer and percussionist throughout the film. While her subtle vocalizing and percussive effects added a new dimension to our sound, it was her featured vocals that brought the audience to its feet. We look forward to working with her again.

Salomé is now out on DVD

Did you miss our performance of Salomé at the National Gallery of Art in 2001? Don’t pout! Image Entertainment released Salomé on DVD this past July. Our Dolby Digital 5.0 contribution is one of two new scores available on the disc. Reaction to our score has been very positive. Did we mention what the Washington Post said about our performance of Salomé at the National Gallery? “Stirring and Remarkable!”

48 Hour Film Project

This Spring also found us back at work with the team from Visions Theater for yet another 48 Hour Film competition . By definition, the films must be started and completed in 48 hours. Each installment has slightly different requirements but there is always a required prop and a required line that must be in the film. Our genre this time was romantic. We again inlisted the vocal and compositional talents of Susan Lowell and had a great time.

2002

“Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech.” – Martin Fraquhar Tupper

Nosferatu Sightings

We made our debut on cable this past October with at least two screenings of Nosferatu on Turner Classic Movies. The only downside was that Turner forgot to tell anyone involved — we had to find out from our fans. The final screening was top billing on Halloween night at 11:30. It was introduced by Robert Osborne as “the grand daddy of all horror films” and “the film that inspired Shadow of the Vampire.” He forgot to mention our groovy surround score. Maybe next time.

Count Orlok, Nosferatu

October also found me in Hollywood at a screening of Nosferatu at the Silent Movie Theater with organ accompaniment by Bob Mitchell. I have to say that he was amazing. First off, it was a wonderful learning experience. Secondly, he started accompanying silent films in 1924 — when he was 12 years old! The show opening was none other than Film Preservationist David Shepard narrating the French classic, A Trip to the Moon. In case you were wondering just how classy the Silent Movie Theater is, the projectionist was dressed in period clothing and ran a hand-cranked projector for the 1902 film.

DVD News

In September, we delivered the surround score for Salome for an upcoming Image Entertainment  DVD.  We’ll give you more details when we can. All we can say for now is that our live performance of this film score received critical acclaim from the Washington Post.  Naturally, we are thrilled to be able to release it on DVD.

Live from DC

Speaking of performances and French classics, we will be making our return to the National Gallery of Art in January with two films directed by Marcel L’Herbier. On January 18, we will accompany L’Homme du Large (1920), a dramatic tale of one family’s struggles for identity in a small fishing village. On Sunday January19, we will accompany L’Inhumaine (1924). This film was the last Impressionist film produced in France and features some outlandish art deco sets, a stylish female singer who is chased by many men, and a Science Fiction slam bang ending with a scientist that looks like Thomas Dolby and assistants that look like Devo. Our friend Susan Lowell will add her powerful voice to help us bring the film to life. Mark your calendars – it’s going to be a fun weekend.