Minneapolis-based musical group Pyrrha is coming to Grand Marais to perform their original score for Jean Epstein’s 1928 silent film The Fall of the House of Usher at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts on June 10 at 7:30 p.m.
The North Shore Music Association presents an innovative and engaging live-music and cinema event: The Fall of the House of Usher, Jean Epstein’s 1928 silent film masterpiece, with original score performed by the group Pyrrha.
Based on Edgar Allan Poe’s gothic horror story of the same name, The Fall of the House of Usher seethes with dreamy visual experimentation and surreal imagery. Epstein’s adventurous filmmaking style renders the film fresh now, almost 90 years later. A psychological tale of confusion between reality and pictures, The Fall of the House of Usher might be the perfect camp melodrama for the age of social media. Performing their original score for the film, Pyrrha is the collaboration of Minneapolis-based musicians Jackie Beckey, Jonathan Kaiser, and Adam Wozniak. With a core instrumentation of viola, cello, and bass, these three musicians are as experienced performing in rock clubs and art galleries as they are in classical concert halls.
For the past several years, the members of Pyrrha have shared an interest in live music for cinema. Kaiser and Wozniak toured together in the band Dark Dark Dark and worked to score Fritz Lang’s Spies at the Walker Art Center in 2011. Kaiser helped Beckey’s band Brute Heart with a commission to score the classic silent film The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari at the Walker in 2012. Kaiser and Beckey then formed the duo Pyrrha and composed and performed live film scores to D.W. Griffith’s A Corner in Wheat at Poor Farm in Wisconsin, and Kaiser’s film Flat Land Speed at Empire Drive-In at the New York Hall of Science. In 2015 Wozniak joined Pyrrha, and the trio wrote an original score to the silent film The Phantom Carriage, which they performed at Twin Cities venues the American Swedish Institute and Heights Theater.
Combining musical genres from folk tunes to experimental sound for their lush score to The Fall of the House of Usher, Pyrrha now brings this silent film treasure vividly to life for contemporary audiences.
The show will be held June 10, 7:30 p.m. at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts.
General admission $15 adult; $10 youth. For sale in advance at http:// aca.tix.com and at door night of show (box office opens at 6:30 pm).
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