By Clara Bow in “It” (1927) on Saturday, May 7
Organist Peter Krasinski will accompany the 1927 silent film comedy It, with Clara Bow, on the historic 1874 Johnson organ at the Stone Church Cultural Center, 283 Main Street, Gilbertville, MA, at 7 pm on Saturday, May 7. Tickets are $15; youth under 18 are admitted free. Group tickets for families of more than four will be capped at $60 for the group.
2022 Concerts at the Stone Church season subscribers are admitted free. Friends of the Stone Church also participate in the Card to Culture program of the Mass Cultural Council, described below.
Peter Krasinski has premiered the art of live improvised silent film accompaniment worldwide. He recently received the First Prize in Improvisation from the American Guild of Organists National Competition. He is broadly recognized as a motivating consultant for the pipe organ community and as a conductor, organist, and music educator. He has interpreted many silent films with his improvised live accompaniment, including Wings, an Academy Award-winner also starring Clara Bow. His sense of dramatic timing, whether the subject is somber or scary, romantic or humorous, brings classic silent film to life. Audiences for his original productions cite the ‘marriage of movie and music’ that Krasinski creates. As organ historian Barbara Owen said of his production of The Big Parade, “…it takes us in. We are no longer sitting in pews in a warm church on a dark night watching tinted images flicker across a screen….”
Clara Bow was raised in very difficult circumstances, but she doggedly worked her way into Hollywood after winning a magazine photo contest. Her success was rapid. In the year 1925, when Bow was twenty, she made fifteen films. Her short hair and just as brief dresses made her the ideal ‘flapper girl.’ The silent film It was a run-away box office success. The critics noted that Clara Bow’s ‘being comfortable in her own skin’ lent her huge attractiveness, so much so that the film’s title quickly came to be equated with magnetic sex appeal.
As live concerts resume, Friends of the Stone Church are delighted to offer this fourth accompanied film in our Silents are Golden series. We ask those who attend to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, unless they have a valid medical exemption, and to wear a mask indoors throughout the event.
Concerts at the Stone Church through June 2022 are supported by grants from the Mass Cultural Council and from Local Cultural Councils of Barre, Hardwick-New Braintree, North Brookfield, Oakham and Petersham. Local Cultural Councils are local agencies supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.
FOSC is pleased to be participating in the Card to Culture program of the Mass Cultural Council, by extending discounts to EBT, WIC and ConnectorCare health plan insurance cardholders. Eligible participants will receive up to 4 free tickets per family to 2022 concerts. Bring EBT, WIC or ConnectroCare health plan card for 2022 to the concert to receive this discount. FOSC also offers a 10% concert ticket to U.S. veterans and military families.
Friends of the Stone Church 