Off to Pordenone

Well, I never wrote about San Francisco...played for MIKAEL (Dryer) and THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED (Reiniger) and saw some wonderful other films, among them HER WILD OAT and THE PATSY (go, Marion Davies!). Then I had a bunch of films at MoMA in August and September, including WAY DOWN EAST with Joanna singing, as we did in Pordenone two years ago and Lincoln Center last summer.

I've been working on rescoring one of the Superman cartoons from the 40's over the past week and hope to finish by next week for performances in Portland OR and Northampton MA in November. But tomorrow Joanna and I leave for Pordenone to perform at Le Giornate del Cinema Muto. We'll be doing a program of songs from the early 20th century that are all about going to the cinema, with special guest Jean Darling of Our Gang and the original cast of Carousel.

Joanna will sing along with my accompaniments for SALLY OF THE SAWDUST and LADY OF THE PAVEMENTS, both directed by D. W. Griffith. And I will also be playing for a couple of other films and coaching aspiring pianists in the seminar each morning.

The orchestral score I wrote for the digital restoration of MANHATTA (1920) will open Monday night's program, with the beautiful recording by Peter Breiner and the Slovak Sinfonietta done in March. This is the world premiere of this version of the film. Other performances this fall will take place at the Times/BFI London Film Festival and at MoMA.
Stay tuned for reports from Pordenone!

Best
Donald