The Mighty Wurlitzer:Music at the Movies March 19, 2010

Mar. 19 8pm and Mar. 21 2pm

Oakland East Bay Symphony (OEBS) celebrates music at the movies with a screening of the classic silent film, The General (1927) accompanied by Christoph Bull playing the Paramount Theatre's Mighty Wurlitzer. Bull has composed an original score for the film by Buster Keaton and Clyde Bruckman. Bull will join the orchestra for Camille Saint-Saens' Symphony No. 3, "Organ Symphony" (1886). Film-goers will recognize this symphony from the Academy Award nominated movie, Babe (1995).

Maestro Michael Morgan cites The General as "one of the funniest movies ever made." Given the directive to program whatever he desired for his 20th anniversary season, Morgan chose to share one his favorite films with the OEBS audience.

This program returns the Paramount Theatre to its movie palace heyday in the 1930s and '40s. The theatre is one of the finest remaining examples of Art Deco design in the United States. Designed by San Francisco architect Timothy L. Pflueger and completed in late 1931, it was one of the first Depression-era buildings to incorporate and integrate the work of numerous creative artists into its architecture and is noteworthy for its successful orchestration of the various artistic disciplines into an original and harmonious whole.

Official Website: http://www.oebs.org