Musicians at Festival 2021

Alloy Orchestra is a three man musical ensemble, writing and performing live accompaniment to classic silent films. Working with an outrageous assemblage of peculiar objects, they thrash and grind soulful music from unlikely sources. An unusual combination of found percussion and state-of-the-art electronics gives the Orchestra the ability to create any sound imaginable. Utilizing their famous “rack of junk” and electronic synthesizers, the group generates beautiful music in a spectacular variety of styles. They can conjure up a French symphony or a simple German bar band of the 20’s. The group can make the audience think it is being attacked by tigers, contacted by radio signals from Mars or swept up in the Russian Revolution. Alloy Orchestra is comprised of Terry Donahue, Roger C. Miller and Ken Winokur.

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Wayne Barker has garnered acclaim both for his original compositions and live performances in the theater, including a Tony nomination for best original score on Peter and the Starcatcher. His numerous credits include piano scores for Beth Henley’s Laugh, an homage to silent-era slapstick, and Joe DiPietro’s Hollywood, centered around the 1922 murder of director William Desmond Taylor. He composed for Dame Edna Everage as well as appeared onstage as Master of the Dame’s Music for six years.

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Versatile percussionist Frank Bockius specializes in jazz and is versed in medieval, flamenco, and Latin music styles. He has performed for dance and theater companies as well as in his own bands, including the jazz quintet Whisper Hot and the percussion ensemble Timpanicks. He joined the Guenter Buchwald’s Silent Movie Music Company twenty years ago and has since performed for silent films at festivals in Kyoto, Pordenone, and Sodankylä, Finland. He made his first appearance at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival in 2014.

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A specialist in orchestral music from the 1920s and ’30s, conductor and composer Timothy Brock has been responsible for the restoration of several landmark silent-era scores, including Dmitri Shostakovich’s for New Babylon to George Antheil’s Ballet Mécanique. In 1998 the Chaplin estate commissioned Brock to restore the filmmaker’s score to Modern Times and he has since restored twelve Chaplin-penned silent feature and short scores. He is a prolific concert composer in his own right and has also written original scores for silent films as varied as Prix de Beauté and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

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Conductor, composer, pianist, and violinist Guenter Buchwald is a pioneer of the renaissance in silent film music. He has accompanied silent films for thirty-eight years with a repertoire of more than three thousand titles and has conducted orchestras worldwide from Iceland to Romania, Tokyo to Zurich. In great demand as a composer, he has scored silent films as varied as Suzuki and Ota’s What Made Her Do It?, René Clair’s Paris qui dort, Chaplin’s Pawn Shop, and Murnau’s Nosferatu. A soloist known for his virtuoso improvisation, he has appeared regularly at film festivals in Berlin, Bonn, Bologna, Zurich, Pordenone, and Seattle. He is a lecturer at the Film Science Institute at the University of Zurich and resident conductor of the Freiburg Philharmonic Orchestra for Silent Film in Concert. He is cofounder of the Silent Movie Music Company and is musical director of Bristol’s Slapstick Silent Film Festival in England.

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Philip Carli brings both prodigious musical talent and a committed scholarly outlook to his lifelong passion for the music and culture of the turn of the last century. He has toured extensively as a film accompanist throughout North America and Europe, performing on keyboard and with orchestra at such venues as Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery in Washington, DC, the Cinémathèque Québécoise in Montreal, the National Film Theatre in London, and the Berlin International Film Festival. He is the staff accompanist for the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, New York, and performs annually at several film festivals in the United States as well as at Le Giornate del Cinema Muto in Italy.

Based at London’s BFI Southbank, Stephen Horne is considered one of the leading silent film accompanists working today and his music has met with acclaim worldwide. Principally a pianist, he often incorporates other instruments such as flute and accordion into his performances, sometimes playing them simultaneously. He has recorded music for DVD releases and television broadcasts of silent films and regularly performs internationally.

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Jeffrey LaDeur is known for his “delicate keyboard touch and rich expressivity” (San Francisco Chronicle) and playing described as “deeply moving, probing, felt entirely in the moment” (Eduard Laurel) Much sought after for his rare blend of insight, spontaneity, and approachable, communicative stage presence, Jeffrey has captured the hearts and minds of audiences from the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall to the Shanghai Conservatory and the Orlando Festival in the Netherlands.

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A classically-trained pianist, organist, composer, and marionettist, this is William Lewis’ debut performance at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. Mentored as a composer and silent film accompanist by Donald Sosin, he has been writing for silent films since 2014. Composing the scores entirely of his own music, he strives to create both passionate and (mostly) historically appropriate music. William Lewis studies vocal music in 10th grade at Oakland School for the Arts.

The Matti Bye Ensemble seeks that magical, emotional alchemy between music and images, playing a wide variety of instruments that include piano, glockenspiel, violin, musical saw and percussion. It is led by award-winning film composer Matti Bye, who has been the Swedish Film Institute’s resident silent-movie pianist since 1989. In addition to Bye, the ensemble members include Kristian Holmgren, Linda Fredriksson, and Laura Naukkarinen.

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A chamber ensemble that revives the tradition of silent-film orchestras, Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra culls historic libraries of music for its live musical accompaniments. Mont Alto have recorded and toured widely, creating vibrant, emotional, and historically appropriate scores for more than 125 films. Officially formed in 1994 after discovering the music collection of a 1920s-era theater music director, the ensemble combines precision playing with expert selections to bring silent cinema to life. This year’s ensemble is comprised of Rodney Sauer, Brian Collins, Dawn Kramer, Yoriko Morita, Kate Polera and Britt Swenson.

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The Oakland Symphony is celebrated as one of the most distinct regional orchestras in the country, serving a diverse population through its unique convergence of artistic excellence, community service, and education programs. The Symphony aims to make classical music accessible to all members of the community by presenting unique programs and attracting a wide-ranging, culturally diverse audience.

Bassist Sascha Jacobsen draws on a variety of musical styles from classical to jazz and Argentine Tango. He has performed with Kronos Quartet, theatrical greats Rita Moreno, Mandy Patinkin and Patti LuPone, musicians Bonnie Raitt, Randy Newman, and Raul Jaurena, among many others. Jacobsen is in demand as a performer, composer, and arranger, with commissions by the San Jose Chamber Orchestra, Berkeley Youth Symphony, and SF Arts Council among others. He is also a dedicated teacher and has coached students at numerous arts and music schools in the Bay Area. Jacobsen is the founder of the Musical Art Quintet, which performs his original compositions, and plays bass in the group. SF Weekly writes, “Classical training and a taste for evocative melodies underpin this sound.” The Musical Art Quintet is comprised of Michele Walther, Ishtar Hernandez, Charith Premawardhana, Lewis Patzner, and Sascha Jacobsen, with special guest Javier Santiago.

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