December Meeting Notice

December 2005 Meeting Notice

This is a special event in anticipation of the holidays.  We will be screening a film about a composer whose technological vision was far ahead of his time. As this is a holiday social event, the meeting will start at 6pm, where refreshments will be served.

Description

Bad Boy Made Good: The Revival of George Antheil's 1924 Ballet mécanique, a film by Paul D. Lehrman and Ron Frank.

George Antheil, the self-proclaimed "Bad Boy of Music," was a brash, colorful, young "ultra-modern" American pianist and composer during the roaring '20s, whose works caused fistfights in concert halls and riots in the streets from London to Budapest. His magnum opus, the "Ballet mécanique," for percussion, sound effects, and multiple player pianos, turned Paris on its ear in 1924. But the piece called for technology that didn't exist at the time. It took a forward-thinking music publisher, a music technologist, a modern player-piano manufacturer, and the latest in computer technology before the piece was heard the way the composer wanted it-75 years after it was written.

The film was written and produced by Paul Lehrman, a composer and music technology expert, who is well-known in the audio world for his monthly "Insider Audio" column in Mix magazine. He is also a member of the music faculty at Tufts University in Massachusetts. Lehrman started working on the Ballet mécanique project in 1998 at the request of publisher G. Schirmer. It was directed and edited by Ron Frank, an award-winning documentary filmmaker in Los Angeles, whose work has appeared on PBS, A&E, Discovery, and many overseas networks. The film is narrated by Tony Kahn, correspondent and producer for public radio's "The World" and "Morning Stories."

The first version of the film was premiered at the New Haven Film Fest in 2003, where it won First Audience prize. Since then it has appeared in festivals in Ireland, Belgium, and Hungary as well as the US, and won a Telly Bronze Award. This new version was premiered at the AES conference in New York in October, 2005. 

After the film, Charles Amirkhanian will be on hand for Q&A. He is the executor of the Antheil estate, friend of his widow, and assisted director Paul Lehrman in his  researching Ballet Mécanique. He also appears prominently in the film.

Charles Amirkhanian is a composer and also the director of the Other Minds Festival in San Francisco.

Directions

http://www.xnewmedia.com/aboutus/campusdirections.html

Address:

Meyer Sound Performance Hall, Expression Center for New
Media, 6601 Shellmound St., Emeryville, CA 94608