The Silent Pianist Speaks

Neil Brand

Neil Brand, a Fellow of Aberystwyth University, writer, composer and silent Film Accompanist will be performing his work “The Silent Pianist Speaks” at Aberystwyth University 28 March 2014.

The performance is part of the Gregynog Lecture Series 2013/14 and starts at 6.00pm in The Old Hall, The Old College, King Street, Aberystwyth.

Neil’s presentation has been featured at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and uses clips from some of the greatest moments in silent cinema to illustrate his career and the special place of music with silent film.

A Visiting Professor of the Royal College of Music, Neil originally trained as an actor at the University College of Wales Aberystwyth.

He has been accompanying silent films for over 25 years, performing regularly at the National Film Theatre and film festivals internationally.

A composer for film, television and radio, Neil is also a dramatist for BBC radio and television as well as a regular broadcaster.

Dubbed as the ‘doyen of silent film pianists’, he is one of the finest exponents of improvised silent film accompaniment in the world, and wrote and presented the 3-part series “Sound of Cinema – the Music that made the Movies” for BBC 4.

He has written the title music and scores for many TV documentaries including Paul Merton’s Silent Clowns, Silent Britain and Great Britons and scores for over 50 Radio 4 dramas including War and Peace, The Box of Delights, several of the BBC audio Shakespeare Collection plays and Sony award winner A Town Like Alice.

Neil is also highly regarded as a writer of radio plays including the Sony-nominated Stan, which he adapted last year to great acclaim for BBC4 TV.

The performance forms part of the Institute of Languages, Literature and Creative Arts ‘Music and the Movies’ weekend, which also features a screening of Hitchcock’s “Blackmail” complete with Neil new orchestral score, played by Philomusica of Aberystwyth.

All this and more from 28-30 March.

AU8914

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