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Join us at The Cabot for a silent film featuring a live score – 1927’s Metropolis with music by The Anvil Orchestra!Metropolis is Fritz Lang’s German science-fiction classic that presents a highly stylized futuristic city where a beautiful and cultured utopia exists above a bleak underworld populated by mistreated workers. When the privileged youth Freder (Gustav Fröhlich) discovers the grim scene under the city, he becomes intent on helping the workers. He befriends the rebellious teacher Maria (Brigitte Helm), but this puts him at odds with his authoritative father, leading to greater conflict.
THE ANVIL ORCHESTRA
Formed in May 2021, The Anvil Orchestra is a silent film-accompanying ensemble featuring two members of the world-renowned Alloy Orchestra – Terry Donahue (Concussion Ensemble) on drums, percussion, and accordion, and Roger Clark Miller (Mission of Burma, Trinary System) on keyboard/synthesizer. Boston percussionist Lawrence Dersch joins The Anvil Orchestra for films that require a larger percussive sound such as “Metropolis” and “Man with the Movie Camera” and “The Lost World.” The Anvil Orchestra plays percussion-driven original scores to silent classics utilizing unusual sound sources as well as accordion, musical saw, electronics, and orchestral keyboards.
As members of Alloy Orchestra, Miller and Donahue have performed at The Pordenone Silent Film Festival in Pordenone, Italy; The Academy of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, California; The Louvre in Paris; The Lincoln Center in New York City; The San
Francisco Silent Film Festival in California; and in many other theaters and festivals. Miller and Dersch have also toured Europe extensively in the post-punk rock bands Mission of Burma and AKA/COD. They have over twenty DVD/Blu-Ray releases to their
name on labels such as KINO Lorber, Criterion, Image Entertainment, Warner Bros., and Flicker Alley.
The Anvil Orchestra’s inaugural engagement was a virtual concert (due to covid) of the silent film classic, METROPOLIS for the SNF Nostros Festival in Athens, Greece on August 27, 2021.
In October, 2021, they composed a new score for the recently restored Dziga Vertov film “The History of the Civil War”, and premiered the film, 100 years after its first and only showing, live at IDFA in Amsterdam in November.
Roger Ebert said that “Alloy Orchestra is the best in the world at accompanying silent film”. He also inadvertently gave the new version of the band’s name by incorrectly announcing them, some years ago, as “The Anvil Orchestra” from the stage. The ensemble continues to perform and compose new scores.
For more information about The Anvil Orchestra, visit their website at www.theanvilorchestra.com.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
The Cabot, 286 Cabot St,Beverly,MA,United States
Tickets
