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Listen Locally with The Kyle Simpson Chamber Orchestra

January 25, 2020 @ 7:30 pm

Kyle Simpson Jan 2020

Listen Locally with The Kyle Simpson Chamber Orchestra
Original Méliès film scores – Pittsburgh Premiere

Saturday, January 25, 2020
7:30pm

Tickets are available at the door beginning at 6:30pm.
$25/adults; $15 students; $5 youth

Arrive early and explore our historic library and rare Civil War room. 

We kick off our 2020 Listen Locally season with a unique audio-visual experience – the Pittsburgh premiere of Kyle Simpson’s original scores to Georges Méliès’ silent films: A Trip to the Moon (1902) and The Kingdom of Fairies (1903).

Award-winning Pittsburgh composer and international artist, Kyle Simpson D.M.A. and his chamber orchestra will perform live with Pittsburgh’s Redline String Quartet to a screening of Méliès’ two most famous silent films.

Méliès’ early twentieth century costumes, sets, and signature optical tricks are crafted together with Simpson’s eclectic compositional style with influences of Debussy, Stravinsky, Steve Reich and a nod to the cinematic sounds of John Williams and Alexandre Desplat. Travel through time with us and rediscover these brilliant films with the uniquely 21st century concept of marrying contemporary music with classic film.

Doors open at 6:30pm || Concert begins at 7:30pm
Tickets: $20 advance / $25 at the door / $15 with Student ID / $5 youth 12 & under

Get your tickets in advance here.

Meet the Artist:

Kyle Simpson D.M.A is a Pittsburgh-based composer and trumpet player who seeks to fuse the worlds of jazz and contemporary classical music. He has performed professionally with the Glenn Miller Orchestra (2007 tour). He has also shared the stage with jazz artists such as Lew Soloff and Paquito D’Rivera. Aside from his jazz explorations, Simpson has written numerous works for the concert stage, including works both large and small. In 2011, he conducted his own composition Journey Into Wissameking with the Janaček Philharmonic, in Ostrava, Czech Republic at “Ostrava Days.”  Other works have been performed in festivals in Italy, Croatia, France, Greece, and the United States
His recent composition, On The Road Suite, written for narration and chamber orchestra to the text of Jack Kerouac’s famous novel of the same name, was awarded Honorable Mention for the 2017 American Prize in Orchestral Composition. The piece juxtaposes boogie-woogie and bebop idioms with Stravinsky-esque marches and miniatures. American Prize panel said about the work, “The music keeps unfolding, like a magic carpet: its function is always to support the narrated text.”
Simpson has also made forays in the film industry by scoring music for Pittsburgh directors including Tom Kurlander and Pittsburgh Filmmakers John Cantine. He is currently working with filmmaker Bruce Spiegel in scoring a new documentary about the steel industry in Pittsburgh. He recently won acclaim for his scoring work in Thessaloniki, Greece at the Fusion Film Scoring Workshop.

Details

Date:
January 25, 2020
Time:
7:30 pm
Event Categories:
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