UPCOMING PERFORMANCES
SPRING 2020 PERFORMANCES POSTPONED DUE TO CORONA VIRUS. WATCH FOR SPECIAL ONLINE PRESENTATIONS IN MARCH AND APRIL. WE HOPE TO SEE YOU IN THE SUMMER AND FALL.
Mar. 11 La Maschera e il Volto, Brown University, Donald and Joanna
Mar. 19, Variety program of shorts, house concert, Stuart FL, Donald and Joanna
Mar. 22 Blue Blazes Rawden starring William S. Hart Kenyon Hall, West Seattle, Donald
Mar. 23, The Ancient Law, Silent Mondays, Paramount Theatre, Seattle, Donald and violinist Alicia Svigals
Mar. 26 The Ancient Law, Pioneer Valley Jewish Film Festival, Amherst MA , Donald and violinist Alicia Svigals
Apr. 2-5 TBA, Denver Silent Film Festival, Donald and Joanna
Apr. 16 The Ancient Law, Ashland Independent Film Festival, Donald and violinist Alicia Svigals
Apr. 17 School performances at Ashland IFF, Donald
Apr. 19 The Ancient Law, Temple Israel, Hollywood CA, Donald and violinist Alicia Svigals
June 20-27 TBA Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna
August 8 City Without Jews JCC in Sherman CT Donald and Alicia Svigals
August 11 City Without Jews Huntington Cinema Arts Centre Donald and Alicia Svigals
Sept. 9 The Ancient Law Jackson Hole, WY Donald and Alicia Svigals
Sept. 26 The Ancient Law University of Wisconsin Donald and Alicia Svigals
Oct. 3-10 TBA Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone
Oct. 15 The Ancient Law George Eastman Museum Rochester Donald and Alicia Svigals
Oct. 17 The Ancient Law Hobart and Williams College Donald and Alicia Svigals
Oct. 27 Phantom of the Opera Bergen Community College, Paramus Donald and Joanna
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2020 is a strange year for everyone, but fortunately we have had some recording projects to keep us busy while we are housebound. Stay tuned for details.
2019 marked our first trip to Thailand for the Thailand Silent Film Festival, with four films and a workshop. We were also in Providence and Bologna, Donald went to Telluride and Pordenone, and we made our first appearance at Bergen Community College, with another show
2017 was an amazing year for us—Donald’s first appearance at the TCM Festival, the Denver and San Francisco Silent Film Festivals, shows at Yale and Bologna’s Cinema Ritrovato, our first gigs in Canada at the University of Calgary and the amazing Banff Centre for Creative Arts, and return engagements to Isabella Rossellini’s Long Island farm, MoMA, the National Gallery and the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Plus recordings for Criterion, Milestone, and KinoLorber. A great year!
MARCH 2017 A busy month for silent film music! We returned to Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline MA for a wacky evening of comedies, including a pie-throwing contest that preceded Laurel and Hardy’s long-lost Battle of the Century. Local drummer Bill Reynolds joined us, and Joanna had an expanded percussion table with car horns, ratchets and other gizmos that made quite a racket. Two days later, from the ridiculous to the sublime: Brown University’s annual touring program of films from Bologna’s Cinema Ritrovato. This year we accompanied two early Italian shorts, one from Venice, one from Bologna, and a short film following Puccini through his day. Joanna found songs by Tosti, as well as early Puccini gems, and a beautiful, fairly unknown aria by Guido Bianchini from his 1949 opera La Ponte delle Maravigie. Later in the month I traveled to Phoenix’s splendid Herberger Theater for a two-day Sherlock Holmes Film Festival, bringing my score for the 1916 William Gillette film, this time as a piano solo.
FEBRUARY Donald and Joanna expanded their January slide show with singalongs and filled the Hotchkiss Library in Sharon CT with singing and laughter in a Valentine’s Day program of favorite love songs through the years, plus comedy shorts. A great program for any time of year! Write us for details!
JANUARY Joanna will sing four Irving Berlin songs and one of our own in Donald’s brand-new arrangements for 21-piece orchestra at the Jan. 15 concert of the Salisbuy Sinfonietta, which will feature Chaplin’s The Pawnshop and Keaton’s The High Sign with scores commissioned last year from Brown University and Bologna’s Cinema Ritrovato, respectively. Jack Bowman, artistic director/conductor. Kids and students free! Please come in Chaplin costumes! Adults (donation suggested) may wear 20’s outfits! Reception at the church, and free champagne across the street at the Lockup Restaurant. Singalongs and Charleston clips. Salisbury Congregational Church, Route 44, Salisbury CT 06068 860-435-2442
DECEMBER Donald did four shows in one day at the San Franciso Silent Film Festival’s Winter Event, and lived to tell the tale.
NOVEMBER Joanna and Donald were at AFI Silver in Silver Spring MD with Lois Weber’s Shoes and The Dumb Girl of Portici, and William Wyler’s The Shakedown. They packed the house at Williamstown’s Images Cinema to celebrate the theater’s 100th anniversary, with Harold Lloyd’s Safety Last and a singalong program.
SEPTEMBER: Donald brought his score for Fritz Lang’s Spies (1928) to the Telluride Film Festival. The sold-out audience for this 2 hr. 20 min. thrill-packed forerunner of all spy films included Volker Schlöndorff, Bertrand Tavernier, Werner Herzog, Peter Sellars, Esther Hoffenburg and Telluride’s co-director Tom Luddy.
Joanna and Donald are participating in National Arthouse Theatre Day at the Moviehouse in Millerton NY. The duo will accompany Buster Keaton’s Steamboat Bill, Jr. and do a Q & A.
AUGUST: Isabella Rossellini invited Joanna and Donald to bring a program of silent comedy to her Brookhaven NY farm as a benefit for Plaza Mac, an arthouse cinema on Long Island’s southern shore.
JULY: The Odessa International Film Festival commissioned Donald to score for Sherlock Holmes (1916) and performed it on the Potemkin Steps with a 45-piece orchestra.
Bologna’s Cinema Ritrovato commissioned Donald to score for Buster Keaton’s The High Sign (1921) and performed it on the Piazza Maggiore with a 35-piece orchestra.