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Pipe organ to accompany screening of ‘Hunchback’
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
YOUNGSTOWN
It will be a Halloween show the likes of which haven’t been seen since the 1920s.
At 2 p.m. Saturday at Stambaugh Auditorium, the 1923 silent movie “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” will be screened, accompanied by live pipe- organ music by Todd Wilson of Cleveland.
Wilson will play the newly refurbished pipe organ at Stambaugh as the movie plays, simulating the experience of the early days of movie theaters. He will use his own original score.
“Todd will do an improvisatory accompaniment to the film itself, just as was done in the movie theaters when silent films were new,” said Ron Gould, Stambaugh’s organ specialist and member of the board of directors.
“It is his special area of expertise,” Gould continued. “The style of the music fluctuates throughout in keeping with the mood of the scenes depicted in the film.”
A $1.5 million refurbishment of the pipe organ at Stambaugh was completed last year, making Saturday’s event possible.
“Now that we have an organ that can do this kind of thing with distinction, I can promise you an afternoon that will be truly special,” said Gould.
Wilson is director of music and organist at the Church of the Covenant (Presbyterian) in Cleveland, where he heads a program of choirs as well as a concert series. He is also head of the organ department at the Cleveland Institute of Music and organ curator of the recently restored E. M. Skinner organ at Severance Hall, home of the Cleveland Orchestra.
Saturday’s performance is free, but reservations are required. Call 330-747-5175, or go to stambaughauditorium.com. Tickets can be picked up at the door.
“The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” starring Lon Chaney as Quasimodo, is the tragic story of a deformed and tortured bell ringer at a cathedral in 15th-century Paris.
Saturday’s event is recommended for children age 10 and up. The film will be followed by a children’s costume party with prizes. Refreshments will be served by costumed members of the Stambaugh Auditorium.
The Halloween show also will mark the first time a film has been screened in Stambaugh, and special equipment has been brought in for the event, according to a news release from the auditorium.