For
over two decades Ben Model has served as resident silent film
accompanist for The Museum of Modern
Art (MoMA)
in New York City, has played in many other venues around the
Northeastern U.S., and produces The
Silent Clowns Film Series with film historian Bruce Lawton.
Ben composes
and improvises all
his own scores, and performs in a style that is both evocative of the
silent
era and also aware of a contemporary (and younger) audience's awareness
of music and film scoring. Ben is also a silent film historian,
and often introduces the films he accompanies. In the spring of
2006, Ben co-organized MoMA's two-month retrospective of the films of
Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, and in the fall of 2008 he co-taught a silent
film class at MoMA, Cruel and
Unusual Comedy: Social Commentary in the American Slapstick Film, which
will be presented in May 2009 as a public screening series.
Ben has been
fortunate to have had his
lifelong
passion for silent film
fostered by important figures in classic cinema: he grew up watching
silent movies at the home of Walter Kerr, drama critic and author of
“The
Silent Clowns” (Knopf, 1975), he accompanied silent movies for
noted film historian William K. Everson's classes at NYU while
attending film school there, and learned the craft and technique of
silent film scoring from legendary silent film organist Lee
Erwin.
Ben
has also made
the silent film experience portable, by teaming up with fellow film
historian Bruce
Lawton. Together,Bruce and
Ben have
brought their
projectors, films, music and knowledge to schools, universities
libraries,
museums, and churches all over the Northeastern U.S.
silentfilmmusic.silentclowns.com
is no longer in use!
Your web browser is
about to be redirected to
www.silentfilmmusic.com
|
silent film,
silent
film music, silent clowns, theater organ, theatre organ, photoplay,
Buster
Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, D.W. Griffith, John Barrymoore,
Lee Erwin, Wurlizter, Ben Model, Bruce Lawton, Synth-Org, silent film,
silent film music, silent clowns, theater organ, theatre organ,
photoplay,
Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, D.W. Griffith, John
Barrymoore,
Lee Erwin, Wurlizter, Ben Model, Bruce Lawton, Synth-Org, silent film,
silent film music, silent clowns, theater organ, theatre organ,
photoplay,
Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, D.W. Griffith, John
Barrymoore,
Lee Erwin, Wurlitzer, Ben Model, Bruce Lawton, Synth-Org, Miditzer,
Donald Sosin, Phil Carli, Dr. philip C. Carli, Jon Spurney, jon
mirsalis, robert israel, dennis james, dave knutsen, donald sosin