May 29, 2024, 7PM at The Strand Theater in Plattsburgh, NY
Many of you may remember MoMA’s Ben Model from earlier performances at the Willsboro Central School—and we at Piano by Nature are beyond thrilled to have him back to the North Country! You will have opportunities to see him two times, in two different Buster Keaton movies, two different days, two different places, and with two different instruments!
On Wednesday, May 29th Ben will be performing at the Strand Theatre in Plattsburgh at 7PM playing their magnificent theatre organ while accompanying Buster Keaton’s Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928). And on Thursday, May 30th Ben will perform at the Willsboro Central School Auditorium at 7PM playing their beautiful grand piano while accompanying Buster Keaton’s Sherlock Jr. (1924) and The Scarecrow (1920) short. Come to both and experience a two full evenings of live silent movie magic.
Piano By Nature co-presents Ben Model in two concerts—one with Plattsburgh’s Strand Theatre and the next at the Willsboro Central School Auditorium in Willsboro, NY. The doors at the Auditorium will open half an hour prior to performance time, and we encourage attendees to arrive early to avoid lines at check-in.
Admission to our concert at the Willsboro Auditorium is $20 each with a special $5 price for children 15 years of age and under. Families of 3 or more please ask about our family rate. For more info please email us at pianobynature@gmail.com or call 518-962-8899.
See below for more information on the Strand showing.
In STEAMBOAT BILL, JR. (1928), Buster Keaton plays the son of a riverboat captain (Ernest Torrence) who comes home from college to help run the family business. As luck would have it, his girlfriend from school (Marion Byron) also has a father with a steamboat, who is trying to put Steamboat Bill, Sr. out of business. In the film ‘s climax, Buster faces a windstorm to save his father and his boat and win the heart of his girl. The film is known for what might be considered Keaton’s most famous film stunt: the facade of an entire house falls on top of him while he stands in the perfect spot to pass through the open attic window instead of being flattened. In 2016, the film was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.
The film will be accompanied by renowned silent film accompanist Ben Model on the Strand’s historic Wurlitzer theatre pipe organ.
Ben Model is one of the nation’s leading silent film accompanists, performing on both piano and theatre organ. Over the past 40+ 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. silentfilmmusic.com @silentfilmmusic
Please join us at The Strand Center For The Arts for a 7PM screening of the silent film Steamboat Bill Jr.(1928) starring Buster Keaton, with live theatre organ accompaniment by Ben Model. Please visit https://www.strandcenter.org/theatre-events for more info.
Please join us at The Willsboro Central School on Thursday, May 30th for a 7PM screening of the silent film Sherlock Jr. (1924) starring Buster Keaton, with live piano accompaniment by Ben Model. Please call 518-962-8899 or email pianobynature@gmail.com for more info.
About SHERLOCK JR.
Buster Keaton stars as a movie projectionist who dreams himself into the film he’s showing in one of the funniest, most imaginative, and surreal comedies of the silent era.
Buster Keaton’s sublime comedy about reality and illusion, in which projectionist Buster literally dreams himself into the detective movie he’s screening is considered one of his finest works. Buster stars as a movie projectionist/janitor who dreams of being a detective, and impressing the girl he loves. When Buster dreams himself into the film he’s showing, he is propelled into a visual wonderland where real life and fantasy come crashing together. Sherlock Jr. was Keaton’s 3rd feature-length film as an independent after switching to the longer format following a series of brilliant 2-reelers in the early 1920s. The film was innovative in its technical mastery, its surreal explosion of cinematic space, and its wonderfully pure zaniness. (USA, 1924, 49 min., NR, Silent with English intertitles | Dir. Buster Keaton)
A little more about Ben…
Ben Model is one of the nation’s leading silent film accompanists, and he performs on both piano and theatre organ. Ben is the resident film accompanist at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in NYC and at the Library of Congress’ Packard Campus Theatre, where for more than 40 years he has created and performed several hundred live scores for silent films.
His recorded scores can be heard on numerous DVD/Blu-Ray releases from Kino Lorber, Milestone, and his own label Undercrank Productions, as well as on Turner Classic Movies. Ben’s Undercrank Productions have released many rare undiscovered gems of the silent era as part of a co-branding arrangement with the Library of Congress. These include films starring Marcel Perez, Alice Howell, Baby Peggy, and Marion Davies that have been out of circulation since the 1920s.
Ben is a regular accompanist at classic film festivals throughout the world, and is the producer and co-founder of The Silent Clowns Film Series, now celebrating its 25th season in NYC. Ben has also co-curated several silent film series for MoMA and co-curates the Monthly Silents series at the Cinema Arts Centre on Long Island.
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 was live-streamed with Ben and film historian Steve Massa co-hosting from their apartments – Steve introducing silent era slapstick shorts and Ben accompanying 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, and is now live-streamed on a monthly basis.
Ben has also 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 new book Ernie In Kovacsland, which will be 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.
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Piano By Nature’s programs are made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrant program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by the Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts. We are also supported by the Essex County Arts Council’s Cultural Assistance Program Grant with funding provided by Essex County. And we’d also like to thank our many patrons and donors for their generous contributions over the past 16 years—you are keeping live music ‘alive’ in the North Country!