Donald Sosin and Joanna Seaton

Live Music for Silent Movies
piano " theater organ " synth " vocals " percussion

"The top-of-the-line of film pianists!"

? Leonard Maltin, film critic, author, historian



"Donald Sosin eschewed a traditional score in favor of a mix of blues, boogie-woogie, stride and swing that perfectly matched the film's jumping tempo and brought much of the crowd to its feet at the end." ? Michael Schlesinger, SONY Classics


Coming Soon

Click on a showing for details:

  • Sat., April 28, 2:30pm ? MoMA
  • Sat., May 12, 1:30pm ? Walter Reade Theater, Lincoln Center
  • Sat., May 26 2:30 pm Seattle International Film Festival
  • June 23-30 Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna
  • July 12-15 San Francisco Silent Film Festival
  • July 19-20 MANHATTA and a silent film music workshop (with Joanna Seaton) at the Art & Psyche in the CIty conference at NYU
  • July 26-29 Seattle WA
  • Aug. 30-Sept. 3
  • Sept. 20-23 Denver Silent Film Festival
  • October 6-13 Pordenone Italy
  • New on DVD:Two Chaplin extra features! Criterion's May release of THE GREAT DICTATOR includes a clip from KING, QUEEN, JOKER, with Sydney Chaplin in an early version of the famous barbershop scene from his brother's later sound film. And ALL AT SEA, a 1930 home movie by Alistair Cooke, with Charlie Chaplin and Paulette Goddard, is a special feature of the 2-disc digital restoration of MODERN TIMES, also from Criterion; The Docks of New York (1928) dir. Josef von Sternberg. Score by Donald Sosin and Joanna Seaton, with a new theme song, "My Lucky Day." (Criterion)"... a must-have boxed set…one of the most beautifully produced DVD sets of the year." ? Dave Kehr, NY Times

    Also on DVD: Bucking Broadway, dir. John Ford (Criterion); Wild Rose, dir. Sun Yu (San Francisco Silent Film Festival); Sally of the Sawdust, dir. D. W. Griffith; A Man There Was, dir. Victor Sjöström and Georges Méliès: First Wizard of Cinema and Silent Ozu: Three Comedies, all with piano accompaniment by Donald Sosin. more >


    Buster Keaton

    Bringing Classic
    Silent Films to Life

    Recent appearances: Film Society of Lincoln Center; MoMA; San Francisco Silent Film Festival; Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone; Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna; Seattle Film Festival; Houston Cinema Arts Festival; Virginia Film Festival

    click here to listen to audio files

    "The top of the line of film pianists!" ?Leonard Maltin, author and film critic

    "Of all the musicians who play for the silent film today, Donald Sosin is for me the one who is most sensitive to the film he accompanies, the one who supports the film and never overpowers it." ?Eileen Bowser, former Curator of Film, Museum of Modern Art, NY, film scholar and author


    Articles

    Great articles originally published in Mix and Chronogram about the making of
    silent film music

    Featured DVD and Video Performances by Donald Sosin

    Donald Sosin?s scores can be heard for GEORGE MELIES, SILENT OZU, THE PEACH GIRL, UNSEEN CINEMA, HAROLD LLOYD COLLECTION 2, AVANT GARDE: EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA OF THE 1920s AND 1930s, SIREN OF THE TROPICS, THE FORGOTTEN FILMS OF FATTY ARBUCKLE, EDISON: INVENTION OF THE MOVIES, KING OF KINGS, SPIES, THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI, NOSFERATU, LONG PANTS, BLIND HUSBANDS, TITANIC, and THE STORY OF FLOATING WEEDS. more >

    video cover George Melies video cover Silent Ozu video cover Peach Girl video cover Harold Lloyd video cover Avant Garde video cover Siren of the Tropics video cover Edison Invention of the Movies
    video cover King of Kings video cover Spies video cover Cabinet of Dr. Caligari video cover Nosferatu video cover Long Pants video cover Blind Husbands video cover Titanic video cover Story of Floating Weeds

    Avant Garde Films

    Donald Sosin announces the release of fifteen new silent film scores for avant-garde films on DVD in the UNSEEN CINEMA 7-disc set from Image. Among the films is the first American avant-garde film, MANHATTA, by Charles Sheeler and Paul Strand, based on Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. Listen to the synthesized orchestral score or view the film.

    The other films in the collection include: Anemic Cinema (Duchamp), H2O (Ralph Steiner), Life and Death of a Hollywood Extra (Florey and Vorkapitch), Skyscraper Symphony (Florey) Pie in the Sky (Steiner, with Elia Kazan), Beggar on Horseback (excerpt with Edward Everett Horton), and A Bronx Morning (Jay Leyda), which was just chosen for preservation by the Library of Congress.

    Little Red Jiving Hood

    Granny?s girl gets some jump in her step for Little Red Jiving Hood. An interview with writer and director Ben Hillman; score by Donald Sosin. read the interview


    Recordings and Live Performances

    For information on recordings and booking live performance, contact:

    FARMHOUSE WINDOW PRODUCTIONS
    41 Horseshoe Lane
    Lakeville CT 06039
    Tel: (860) 435-4687