Ben Model, silent film composer accompanist historian
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Ben Model is one of the USA's leading silent film accompanists, and has been playing piano and organ for silents at the Museum of Modern Art in New York for the past 28 years.  Ben  co-curates MoMA's annual "Cruel and Unusual Comedy" series and co-curated their 2006 Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle retrospective. Ben also curated Shout!Factory's new "Ernie Kovacs Collection" DVD box set.  A five-time recipient of the Meet The Composer grant, Ben is a regular accompanist at classic film festivals around the U.S.A. and in Norway, and performs at universities, museums, and historic theaters. Ben is the producer and co-founder of The Silent Clowns Film Series, now in its 14th season in NYC. Ben's recorded scores can be heard on numerous DVD releases from Kino Video and others. Ben's composed ensemble scores for films by Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd are performed around the U.S. every year by orchestras and by concert bands.

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Ben Model's Kickstarter project (ends Dec 5, 2012!):

Time Magazine's video profile on Ben Model:



The one and only Joe Franklin interviewed Ben Model for his
weekly radio show recently.  Listen to the segment here:
 
 

A posting from Ben Model's video blog — take a trip with him on the subway to play for Charlie Chaplin's
"The Immigrant" for a group of 5th graders at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens.


Here's a video blog post from fall 2010 — when Ben premiered an orchestral score
for a Harold Lloyd feature film in Boise, ID.


Ben Model recently posted this silent film with his piano score on his YouTube channel:
a scene from Colleen Moore in "Ella Cinders", available on DVD with his score


Here's Ben Model accompanying a scene from Buster Keaton's "The Scarecrow",
live in performance on a 1927 Robert Morton movie palace theatre organ