Internationally renowned silent film accompanist, Dennis James, is a research fellow in the Film and Media Studies Program who has collaborated with USC faculty on a variety of film music projects. James has created and performed scores on multiple occasions for the Orphan Film Symposium and for a relatively new annual tradition, a silent film screening event with live musical accompaniment that is free and open to the public. James also shares his rare expertise in silent film music with students and faculty in smaller forums during his regular visits to campus.
For overy thirty-five years Dennis James has played a pivotal role in the international revival of silent films with live music. Starting as an accompanist for university screenings, James now tours worldwide under the auspices of his Silent Film Concerts production company presenting professional silent film screenings with piano, theatre organ, chamber ensemble and full symphony orchestra accompaniments. Performing films with orchestras since 1971 throughout the U.S.A., Canada, Mexico and Europe, James is renowned for providing the most comprehensive selection of authentic silent films with live music presentations available today.
A featured solo performer on the international film festival circuit, James appears regularly at the annual San Francisco, Washington D.C. and Philadelphia events as well as the Pordenone and Rome (Italy) Festivals Cinema Muto. He may be seen frequently at the National Gallery of Art, Walker Film Center in Minneapolis, Cleveland Cinematheque and Museum of Art film program, Chicago Art Institute, Louvre Museum in Paris, and the Palazzo Delle Espisozioni in Rome. James performs under the auspices of such organizations as the American Film Institute, National Film Registry, Museum of Modern Art (NYC), Library of Congress, Pacific Film Archive, George Eastman House, American Federation of the Arts, U.C.L.A. Film and Television Archive, Germany's Goethe Institut and the British Film Institute. His solo silent film presentations have been seen throughout Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Austria, The Netherlands, Italy, and England.
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"Theatre organist Dennis James is one of the only living musicians who understands what is musically, historically, and cinematically appropriate for silent films. Dennis James' choice of music (some of which is original) subconsciously guides the listener into many  moods, tension, bliss, excitement, despair, terror, and hilarity. He is able to accomplish this while remaining correct for the period of the film. In other words, if Mr. James' performance had been played when the film was first exhibited, it would have been considered contemporary. He would never attempt to modernize the feeling of the period by creating a score that would clash."
- Peter Mintun, New York pianist and cultural historian
"Silent films are a rare and precious art form of tremendous historical importance, and the art of live musical accompaniment to a silent film is a discipline of equally important historic value. Dennis James is both a musician of tremendous artistic scope and range, and a scholar who strives to preserve and restore this unique 20th century musical practice. He is without doubt the greatest practitioner of the art of solo silent film accompaniment. To witness a contemporary audience experience the beauty and power of silent film through the overwhelming symphonic dynamism that Dennis James unleashes with unerring skill on the theatre organ is an absolute revelation. He's a national treasure."
- Stephen Salmons, Artistic Director, San Francisco Silent Film Festival
"Dennis James is the world's greatest silent film organ player."
- David W. Packard, The Stanford Theatre Foundation
DENNIS JAMES - SILENT FILM CONCERTS
2009-2010 UPCOMING TOUR SCHEDULE
2009
January 5, Paramount Theatre, Seattle, Washington
12th Annual Silent Movie Mondays series: Lon Chaney in HUNCHBACK
OF NOTRE DAME
January 12, Paramount Theatre, Seattle, Washington
12th Annual Silent Movie Mondays: THE MAGICIAN starring Alice Terry
January 15, Washington Center, Olympia, Washington
3rd annual silent film series: Charlie Chaplin film festival: THE
FLOORWALKER, THE RINK, ONE A.M., EASY STREET
January 19, Paramount Theatre, Seattle, Washington
12th Annual Silent Movie Mondays series: Lionel Barrymore in THE
BELLS
January 25, Paramount Theatre, Seattle, Washington
Afternoon solo theatre organ performance for Broadway Series event
January 26, Paramount Theatre, Seattle, Washington
12th Annual Silent Movie Mondays series: DER GOLEM featuring the
Filmharmonia Duo
February 13, Stanford Theatre, Palo Alto, California
Solo organ accompaniment: Harold Lloyd in THE FRESHMAN
February 14, Castro Theatre, San Francisco, California
Silent Film Festival: Paul Leni's THE CAT AND THE CANARY plus F. W.
Murnau's SUNRISE
February 15, Lynwood Theatre, Bainbridge Island, Washington
Two screenings: Rudolph Valentino in SON OF THE SHEIK plus Buster Keaton
in ONE WEEK
February 19, Washington Center, Olympia, Washington
3rd annual silent film series: Buster Keaton in COLLEGE
February 27, California Theatre, San Jose, California
Cinequest Film Festival silent film event: D. W. Griffith's THE BIRTH OF A
NATION
March 1, Ohio Theatre, Columbus, Ohio
Columbus Symphony Orchestra silent film series: Wallace Beery and
Bessie Love in THE LOST WORLD
March 6, California Theatre, San Jose, California
Cinequest Film Festival silent film event: D. W. Griffith's INTOLERANCE
March 8, Arlington Theatre, Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara Theatre Organ Society: Harold Lloyd in NEVER WEAKEN
plus Buster Keaton in THE GENERAL
March 19, Washington Center, Olympia, Washington
3rd annual silent film series: Harold Lloyd in GIRL SHY
March 27, Stanford Theatre, Palo Alto, California
Solo organ accompaniment: King Vidor's THE CROWD
March 28, Trinity Church, Spring Valley, California
San Diego chapter ATOS presented silent film program: Buster Keaton in COPS
plus OUR HOSPITALITY
April 4, Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.
National Symphony Orchestra organ & orchestra silent film: Buster
Keaton in THE GENERAL
April 11, Overture Center, Madison, Wisconsin
Annual 'Duck Soup" silent film series: Harold Lloyd in THE FRESHMAN
April 23, 24, 25, Henry and Renee Segerstrom Concert Hall, Costa Mesa,
California
Pacific Symphony presentations of the Lon Chaney silent film PHANTOM
OF THE OPERA, Richard Kaufman, conductor
May 8, Poncan Theatre, Ponca City, Oklahoma
Silent Film program: Harold Lloyd in GIRL SHY
May 9,10, Coleman Theatre, Miami, Oklahoma
Silent film series program: Ramon Novarro and Norma Shearer in THE
STUDENT PRINCE IN OLD HEIDELBERG
May 25-30, Empress Theatre, Fort Macleod, Alberta, Canada
Glass Armonica performances with the Smith Quartet and the Festival
Ensemble for the Windy Mountain Chamber Music Festival
June 7, City Museum, Wenatchee, Washington
Silent film program: Charlie Chaplin in THE KID
June 8, Paramount Theatre, Seattle, Washington
12th Annual Silent Movie Mondays series: Greta Garbo and John Gilbert
in FLESH & THE DEVIL (plus morning annual STG Educational
Department Theatre Organ and Silent Film Demonstration screening
Charlie Chaplin in THE PAWN SHOP with Paul Hansen, percussionist)
June 11 to 14, Museum of Glass, Corning, New York
Glass armonica program with Venetian-glass artist William
Gudenrath
June 15, Paramount Theatre, Seattle, Washington
12th Annual Silent Movie Mondays series: Lillian & Dorothy Gish plus
John Gilbert in ROMOLA
June 22, Paramount Theatre, Seattle, Washington
12th Annual Silent Movie Mondays series: Cecil B. DeMille's THE
GODLESS GIRL
June 28, Paramount Theatre, Seattle, Washington
Musica Curiosa Duo theatre organ plus unusual instruments concert with
David Peckham
June 29, Paramount Theatre, Seattle, Washington
12th Annual Silent Movie Mondays series: Janet Gaynor in SEVENTH
HEAVEN
July 5, Lynwood Theatre, Bainbridge Island, Washington
Annual Anniversary silent film screenings: William Boyd in THE YANKEE CLIPPER,
directed by Cecil B. DeMille
July 10,11,12, Castro Theatre, San Francisco, California
Annual San Francisco Silent Film Festival: title(s) tba
August 22, Plaza, Beverly Hills, California
City-presented outdoor silent film program: title tba
August 23, Balboa Park, San Diego, California
Afternoon solo organ recital at th Spreckels Organ Pavilion
August 24, Balboa Park, San Diego, California
21st annual outdoor silent film program at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion:
title tba
September 19, First United Methodist Church, Wichita Falls, Texas
Silent film performance within concert series: Charlie Chaplin in THE
KID
October 24, Embassy Theatre, Fort Wayne, Indiana
Annual silent film series: title tba
October 29, I. U. Auditorium, Bloomington, Indiana
Annual Halloween silent film performance: Alfred Hitchcock's BLACKMAIL
October 31, Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco,
California
Annual Halloween silent film program: F. W. Murnau's NOSFERATU
November 21, Recital Hall, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South
Carolina
Annual silent film program: Protazanov's AELITA, QUEEN OF MARS with
accompaniment by the Filmharmonia Duo (Mark Goldstein, electronics)
November 28, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Annual film series program: title tba
2010
January 21, Washington Center, Olympia, Washington
4th annual silent film series: title tba
February 11, Washington Center, Olympia, Washington
4th annual silent film series: title tba
March 11, Washington Center, Olympia, Washington
4th annual silent film series: title tba
April 7-10, NAVCC- Packard Campus, Culpepper, Virginia
Orphans Film Festival
July tba, Paramount Theatre, Seattle, Washington
Silent film program for National American Theatre Organ Society convention
You may contact Dennis at: muscur@gmail.com |
