Saturday, January 31, 2015 at 7:30pm
Jim Rouse Theatre, Wilde Lake High School, 5460 Trumpeter Road, Columbia, MD 21044
(Columbia, MD) For its first commission, the Columbia Orchestra engaged composer Andrew Earle Simpson to write the score to accompany the 1920 silent film One Week, starring Buster Keaton. The Orchestra will give the world premiere along with a screening of the film on Saturday, January 31, 2015. The cinematic theme continues with the vivid musical stories portrayed in Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain and Rossini’s Overture to William Tell. Finally, Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite will provide a journey through America's most picturesque landscape. Guest composer Andrew Earle Simpson will join Bill Scanlan Murphy, music department faculty member at Howard Community College, for a free lecture at 6:30pm. For more information or to purchase tickets, call 410-465-8777 or visit www.columbiaorchestra.org.
“Playing live music with a silent film is a real treat,” says Music Director Jason Love, “and the bonus is that the composer is close enough to attend rehearsals and the concert. It makes a concert combining the very familiar with the brand new even more special.”
Andrew Earle Simpson, composer, pianist, and organist, is ordinary professor and head of the division of Theory and Composition at the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music of The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. A composer of opera, silent film, orchestral, chamber, vocal and choral music, he explores how music interacts with other arts, in concert and on stage. Both his concert and theatrical works make multi-faceted connections with literature, visual art, or film, reflecting his fundamental interest in linking music intimately with the wider world (an approach which Simpson calls “humanistic” music). His creative work follows four principal threads of interest: humanistic music (with a particular interest in Greco-Roman antiquity and modern Greece); silent film music; theatrical music (including opera); and folk music (with emphasis on American folk styles). Silent film, as a nexus of drama, visual art, and music, is an ideal genre for Simpson’s multi-disciplinary explorations. An increasingly active silent film musician, Simpson is Resident Film Accompanist for the National Gallery of Art and House Accompanist for the Library of Congress’ Mt. Pony Theater. He has performed original film scores at the Giornate del Cinema Muto in Pordenone, Italy, Sala Cecelia Meireles in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, AFI Silver Theater, New York Public Library at Lincoln Center, New York, the J. Paul Getty Villa in Los Angeles, and many other venues. He is also cofounder of the Snark Ensemble, a group devoted to creating and performing new scores for silent film, theater, and dance.
Tickets: $25/$20 Adult, $21/$16 Senior, $12/$10 Student. Visit www.columbiaorchestra.org or call 410-465-8777. A $2 ticket processing fee will apply for online and phone orders.
The Columbia Orchestra thanks Vantage House, the Maryland State Arts Council, the Howard County Arts Council, the Community Foundation of Howard County, and The Rouse Company Foundation for their support.
