Theater organ concert will have a contemporary twist
Presentations by the Pittsburgh Area Theatre Organ Society (PATOS) are typically grounded in the 20th century, but next weekend’s concert will have a decidedly contemporary flavor.
Rather than accompanying a silent film like “A Trip to Mars,” songs by Bruno Mars will be played on the Wurlitzer pipe organ in the auditorium of Keystone Oaks High School in Dormont at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Selections from Britney Spears and Henry Mancini will also be part of the program by New York theater organist Nathan Avakian.
Silent films will be included, too, but not the type made by Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton or Harold Lloyd a century ago. Instead, Avakian, who also works as a freelance lighting designer in the theater industry, will be accompanying short silent films made by participants in this year’s International Youth Silent Film Festival.
There will be six shorts shown, according to Dale Abraham, president of PATOS, each about five minutes long. Avakian provided theater organ scores for the students, all of whom were age 20 or younger, and they built the short films around them.
“I think it’s invaluable that you can get young people interested in this,” Abraham said. “We’ve got to figure out how to capture their interest.”
The theater organ at Keystone Oaks High School was originally at the Prospect Theatre in Brooklyn, N.Y., where it was first installed in 1926, and accompanied vaudeville performances and silent films. The arrival of sound motion pictures in the late 1920s led many theaters to scrap their organs, and some were victims of calamities like floods, but the Wurlitzer pipe organ at the high school has managed to endure for almost 100 years, with members of PATOS maintaining it.
Tickets are available at the PATOS website (www.pittsburghtheatreorgan.com) or at the Showclix website (www.showclix.com/event/youthsilents).
Keystone Oaks Auditorium is located at 1000 Kelton Ave. in Dormont. Doors open at 6:45 p.m.