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.
Performing at prestigious film festivals and
cultural centers in the US and abroad (The Telluride Film Festival,
The Louvre, Lincoln Center, The Academy of Motion Pictures, the National
Gallery of Art and others), Alloy has helped revive some of the great
masterpieces of the silent era.
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 collaborates with some of the worlds best archives and collectors (such as the George Eastman House, The British Film Institute, Paramount pictures, Film Preservation Associates and The Douris Corporation) to present audiences with the very best available prints of some of history's greatest film.
The members
of the group include (left to right) :
TERRY DONAHUE (junk,
accordion, musical saw, vocals)
KEN WINOKUR (director, junk percussion
and clarinet)
ROGER MILLER (keyboards)
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NEW!! VIDEO CLIPS AT:
alloyorchestra.blip.tv
*
NEW MUSIC FOR (mostly) SILENT FILMS
Now in it's 18th year, The Alloy Orchestra
began it's aural onslaught with an original score for Metropolis
in 1991. In the intervening years, the group has written scores for 28 feature length film presentations, typically premiering their new scores at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado.
This fall, 2008, Alloy will be premiering their newest score for THE LAST COMMAND, Josef von Sternberg's Academy award winning drama. Paramount Pictures has struck a gorgeous new print which we will be using.
In September of 2007, Alloy premiered their new score for the critically acclaimed silent, UNDERWORLD at the New York Film Festival. UNDERWORLD was the first film by renouned director Josef von Sternberg. UNDERWORLD won the first ever Academy Award for "best writing" (now called best original screenplay) in 1927. Largely unseen for decades, Paramount Pictures struck a gorgeous new print for Alloy's use.
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Alloy has composed
new scores for:
Underworld - directed by Josef von Sternberg
Phantom of the Opera - staring Lon Chaney (US, 1925/29)
The Eagle - staring Rudolph Valentino (US, 1927)
The General - (staring Buster Keaton)
Chang – A Drama of the Wilderness
(directed by Cooper & Schoedsack)
Blackmail (Directed by Alfred
Hitchcock)
Earth (directed by Alexander Dovzhenko,
1930)
Speedy by Harold Lloyd (US, 1928),
The Black Pirate by Douglas Fairbanks
(U.S. 1926),
The Lost World (U.S. 1925),
Manslaughter directed by Cecil
B. Demille n(U.S. 1922),
The Wind with Lilian Gish (American,
l927),
Nosferatu directed by F.W. Murnau
(German, l922),
Lonesome directed by Paul Fejos
(U.S. 1928-9).
A Man With a Movie Camera directed
by Dziga Vertov (USSR 1929),
The Unknown directed by Tod Browning
(US, 1927),
Steamboat Bill Jr. by Buster Keaton
(US, 1927),
Strike directed by Sergei Eisenstein
(USSR, 1924).
Sylvester – Directed by
Lupu Pick (Germany)
Aelita – Queen of Mars (USSR)
South - (England, 1919)
Metropolis directed by Fritz Lang
(Germany, l926)
Shorts
Dada Shorts and Early American Surrealism: Films by Duchamp, Richter, Porter and Keaton
A Trip to the Moon directed by
George Melies (1904, France)
Plane Crazy (Mikey Mouse’s
first appearance) 1926
Pass the Gravy - directed by Hal Roach
A Trip to the Moon - directed by Gerges Melies
One Week – Buster Keaton
Easy Street – Charlie Chaplin
Big Business – Laurel and
Hardy
Chasing Choo Choos – Monte
Bell
Backstage – Rosco “Fatty” Arbuckle
The Bell Boy - Arbuckle
The Butcher Boy - Arbuckle
The Hayseed - Arbuckle
The Hayseed - Arbuckle
Moonshine - Arbuckle
The Garage - Arbuckle
Goodnight Nurse - Arbuckle
The Rough House - Arbuckle
Coney Island – Arbuckle
Out West – Arbuckle
CONTEMPORARY FILM AND
VIDEO SCORES:
In addition to their work with
silents, the Orchestra has contributed soundtracks to contemporary films
and videos by directors Errol Morris (Fast, Cheap and Out of Control),
Jane Gillooly (Dragonflies, the Baby Cries), Ben Meade (Vakvagny), Shandor
Garrison (Freebox) and others.
In the last 18 years, the
ALLOY ORCHESTRA HAS PERFORMED AT:
Telluride Film Festival
Lincoln Center, NY
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts &
Sciences
The National Gallery of Art, Wash. DC
The Pordenone Silent Film Festival, Italy
Human Rights Watch Film Festival, London
The Louvre, Paris
Slovenian Cinematheque
L'Auditorium, Barcelona Spain
Midnight Sun Film Festival, Finland
Gothenberg Film Festival, Sweeden
The New Zealand Int. Arts Festival, New Zealand
Celebrate Brooklyn NY
Detroit Institute of Art
The San Francisco Silent Film Festival, CA
The Chicago Cultural Center
World Music at Somerville Theater, MA
The Oriental Theater, Milwaukee WI
Cleveland Museum of Art
The Music Hall, Portsmouth NH
Maui Film Festival, Hawaii
Seattle Film Festival, WA
North Carolina Museum of Art, NC
Northhampton Film Fest, MA
Cornell Cinema, Ithica NY
Three Rivers Film Festival, Pittsburg PA
Oak St. Cinema Minneapolis MN
The Philadelphia Film Festival
George Eastman House, Rochester NY
The High Museum, Alanta
The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
The Hopkins Center, Dartmouth College NH
Museum of Fine Art, Boston
New York University NY
The Walt Disney Institute
The Olympia WA Film Festival
The Wolfsonian Museum, Miami
Williams College
Brown University
The St. Louis Film Festival
The Vancouver Film Festival, Canada
The NuArt Theater, L.A.
The Portland Oregon Museum of Art
The Cinema Village, N.Y.C.
The Art Institute of Chicago
Webster University, St. Louis
Taos Talking Pictures, NM
The Joslyn Museum, Omaha
And many others....
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