Guarneri Hall in Chicago presents a night of silent film magic with Buster Keaton’s Sherlock Jr. live score performance

Left, right: Illustrations by John Tibbets. Center: Buster Keaton in a publicity still from Sherlock Jr. (The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences)

The intimate 60-seat venue provides a speakeasy-like ambiance, offering audiences the opportunity to interact with artists at reception with a silent film inspired theme

The nonprofit Guarneri Hall, a state-of-the-art, custom-built classical music venue in the heart of downtown Chicago, celebrates the work of legendary silent film star Buster Keaton (1895-1966) via a screening of his work Sherlock Jr. (1924) with live accompaniment of the Chicago premiere of Stephen Prutsman’s original score. The one-night-only performance takes place on Wednesday, November 15 at 6:30 p.m. at Guarneri Hall, 11 E. Adams St., and will feature a pre-show lecture, a post-show Q&A, and a silent film themed reception where audience members interact with the performers.

Pianist and composer Stephen Prutsman will be joined by violinistSteven Copes and members of Guarneri Hall’s resident ensemble NEXUS Chamber Music for the screening, with live accompaniment featuring Prutsman’s original score. Before the performance, John C. Tibbets, Professor Emeritus at the University of Kansas, will share context on the silent film era and what makes Keaton the greatest American filmmaker of the 1920s, and lead a Q&A after the performance. The post-show reception will be a silent film era inspired party with special themed refreshments and a speakeasy-like ambiance, offering audience members the opportunity to interact directly with the artists and scholars.

Building on its first five years, Guarneri Hall’s 2023-2024 season concentrates on “Chamber Music Made Personal”—creating intimate, interactive music events that center chamber music in deeply personal experiences, with programs designed as uniquely powerful communicative encounters that make the most of the intimacy and superb acoustics of the venue.

Stefan Hersh, Founder and Artistic Director of Guarneri Hall, shares the creation of this program and what he is looking forward to the most: “When I first encountered Stephen Prutsman’s performances of his brilliant scores to silent films, I was gobsmacked, and knew that Chicago audiences should experience this! Prutsman will be joined by violinist Steven Copes and NEXUS Chamber Music. The great Keaton historian John C. Tibbets has agreed to come from Kansas City, KS, to give context to Keaton’s spectacular film. This will be an entertaining, artistically excellent and highly informative evening. In addition, our new, event-themed receptions this season have been a big hit, so we are looking forward to the Silent-Film-era-themed after party as well!”

Sherlock Jr. (1924) is Keaton’s third feature film. In 1991, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” In 2000, the American Film Institute recognized it in their list of 100 funniest films, “100 Years…100 Laughs.” Keaton’s trademark sight gags, state-of-the-art effects, and deadpan humor are on full display in this story of a film projectionist who dreams of becoming a great detective.

Tickets

Performance tickets are $40 for General Admission, $10 for students. All tickets include access to the concert and post-concert reception. Tickets are available for purchase at guarnerilhall.org

About The Artists

Stephen Prutsman has been described as one of the most innovative musicians of his time. Moving easily from classical to jazz to world music styles as a pianist and composer, Prutsman continues to explore and seek common ground and relationships in the music of all cultures and languages. As a composer, Prutsman’s long collaboration with Grammy Award winning Kronos Quartet has resulted in over 40 arrangements and compositions for them. Other leading artists and ensembles who have performed his compositions and arrangements include Leon Fleisher, Dawn Upshaw, the St. Lawrence String Quartet, Yo-Yo Ma, Spoleto USA, and the Silk Road Project. In 2010, his song cycle “Piano Lessons” was premiered by Ms. Upshaw and Emanuel Ax at Carnegie Hall(New York), the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Disney Hall (Los Angeles) and the Barbican Centre (London). As a pianist and arranger outside the classical music world, he has collaborated with such diverse personalities as Tom Waits, Rokia Traore, Jon Anderson of “YES”, Sigur Rós and Asha Bhosle. He has scored for a variety of ensembles 15 silent films from the 1920s which are regularly presented at various venues throughout the world.

Violinist Steven Copes leads a diverse and enthusiastic musical life as soloist, chamber musician and orchestral leader. He joined the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra as Concertmaster in 1998, and since then has led the SPCO in many highly acclaimed programs. He appears frequently as soloist with the SPCO, having performed concerti by Bach, Beethoven, Berg, Brahms, Hartmann, Hindemith, Kirchner, Korngold, Lutoslawski, Martin, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Piazzolla, Prokofiev, Schnittke and Weill. In addition, he has performed as a soloist with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, the Colorado Symphony, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra in Boston, the Sao Paolo State Symphony, the Orlando Philharmonic, The Knights, and the Mexico City Philharmonic. A zealous advocate of the music of today, he gave the world premiere of George Tsontakis’ Grammy-nominated Violin Concerto No. 2 (2003), which won the 2005 Grawemeyer award and has been recorded for KOCH Records, and also gave the NY premiere of Lutoslawski’s Subito (1992) for Violin and Piano. In June of 2017 he gave the World Premiere of Pierre Jalbert’s Violin Concerto with Thomas Zehetmair conducting the SPCO. He performed John Novacek’s Four Rags with the composer on NPR’s Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor, and has also appeared on the PBS series Now Hear This.

After receiving a Ph.D. in 1982 from the University of Kansas in multi-disciplinary studies—art history, theater, photography, and film (the first person to complete what was then regarded as an experimental curriculum in multi-disciplinary studies)—John C. Tibbetts was tenured as an associate professor. Under the general rubric of “visual literacy,” his course work includes film history, media studies, and theory and aesthetics. Before entering the academy, Tibbetts worked from 1980 to 1996 as a full-time broadcaster. He was an arts and entertainment editor and producer for a variety of radio and television outlets, including KCTV (Kansas City’s CBS affiliate), KMBC Radio, and KXTR-FM radio. During that time he also contributed many broadcast stories about musicians, painters, playwrights, and filmmakers to CBS Television, the Monitor Radio Network, Voice of America, and National Public Radio. More recently, he has produced two radio series about music, including the 15-part The World of Robert Schumann and the 17-part Piano Portraits, that have been broadcast worldwide and are now a part of the permanent collection of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Archives in Lincoln Center, New York. Both derive from his knowledge of music and feature numerous interviews with musicians and scholars in the musical field. His ability as a pianist of twelve years’ training has resulted in a secondary career accompanying silent movies at venues including the American Film Institute Theatre in Washington, D.C., the Silent Film Festival in Topeka, Kansas, and the annual Buster Keaton Celebrations in Iola, Kansas.

NEXUS Chamber Music (NEXUS) is Guarneri Hall’s ensemble-in-residence. A Chicago-based, artist-driven collective whose mission is to make chamber music culturally relevant, NEXUS specializes in live performances and multimedia content. NEXUS presents an annual festival in Chicago and tours nationally during the year. NEXUS Co-Artistic Directors Alexander Hersh and Brian Hong are driven by a desire to create unique and engaging classical music experiences for an ever-broadening audience. Each year, Hersh and Hong bring in numerous world-class artists to take part in NEXUS’ annual fall festival in the Loop, adding to an impressive and expanding international roster. Since its inaugural season in August 2018, NEXUS has grown into a classical chamber music tour de force, capturing critical acclaim through stellar live performances and dazzling music videos of exciting new commissions and traditional masterworks alike.

About Guarneri Hall

Guarneri Hall NFP delivers extraordinary classical music to a broad and diverse audience through a curated mix of live performances and original music videos. The state-of-the-art hall is a uniquely intimate, custom-built, 60-seat venue in the heart of downtown Chicago with optimal acoustics designed by Threshold Acoustics. In addition to presenting live performances that connect audiences to the dynamism of live performance with unparalleled intimacy, Guarneri Hall also produces high-quality video content designed to advance classical music in the digital age. 

Named after the famous Italian family of luthiers whose prominence in violin making is equaled only by that of Stradivari, Guarneri Hall (pronounced gwar-NAIR-ee) was founded in 2018 by esteemed violinist and violin dealer Stefan Hersh. For more information on Guarneri Hall visit guarnerihall.org