Follow the River to Foxburg for Silent Move Magic & Buster Keaton’s ‘Steamboat Bill, Jr.’

Follow the river to Foxburg for Silent Movie Magic on a delightful Spring afternoon along the beautiful Allegheny as consummate silent movie accompanist and theatre organist Clark Wilson returns to Lincoln Hall to perform on the newly restored McKissick Mighty Wurlitzer on Sunday, May 31 at 2 PM.

Stroll the village, dine along the Allegheny, stop by the Red Brick Gallery for the opening weekend of the Reverse Ekphrasis exhibit (from noon to 5 PM on Sunday), and experience the laughter, nostalgia and musical brilliance of silent film accompanied live in one of Pennsylvania’s most charming river towns.

The concert will open with Clark Wilson playing popular Theatre Organ favorites displaying the newly restored sounds of the McKissick Mighty Wurlitzer, including the thrilling new bass pipes at the back of the hall – AND the newly installed saxophone ranks that Clark was instrumental in purchasing.

After intermission, Clark will depict the delightful musical mayhem of Buster Keaton’s iconic silent film, “Steamboat Bill, Jr,” that is filled with some of the most hair-raising and dangerous sight gags ever captured on film, including the infamous stunt as a house falls around him that is one of the most legendary scenes in silent film history.

Clark’s accompaniment of ‘Steamboat Bill, Jr.’ film will be singular. He is one of the most prominent and recognized scorers of silent movies in America, working exclusively with the theatre organ in developing accurate and historic musical accompaniments as they were performed during the heyday of silent films. His scoring career began in 1980, and he has toured North America with hundreds of film presentations at schools and universities, performing arts centers, theatres, film festivals and conventions.

Clark’s recording credits include seven albums, and he was awarded Theatre Organist of the Year award in 1998 by the American Theatre Organ. Since 1992, he has been organ conservator and Resident Organist at the Ohio Theatre for the Columbus Association for the Performing Arts, responsible for all music during the annual classic movie series, which features one or more major silent films each season.

An acclaimed organ technician and consultant, Clark has been professionally involved with over 200 pipe organ installations and earned the ATOS Technician of Merit award.  He is the only person to receive both ATOS distinctions.

ARCA is delighted to have Clark’s performance on the newly refurbished McKissick Mighty Wurlitzer with his extraordinary knowledge and wisdom as an organ technician who worked closely with ARCA’s Jason Wiles in securing the Mighty Wurlitzer’s new saxophone rank.

Tickets are Adults $25, ARCA Member Discount $20, Students $5. Buy online at alleghenyriverstone.org or Call 724-659-3153 to reserve and pay by cash or check at the door.  Doors open at 1:30 PM

Acclaimed by colleagues and professionals for “the finest use of a theatre pipe organ that I have ever heard,” Clark has concertized in the United States, Canada, Australia, and England. Clark’s silent film musical scoring has led to performances for UCLA, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where he has re-premiered “Wings” for Paramount Studios’ 100th Anniversary, the Chautauqua Institution, Cinequest and San Francisco film festivals.

His busy performance schedule has included the Los Angeles Conservancy, the Packard Foundation’s Stanford Theatre film series, the Atlanta premier of the restored “Metropolis”, and annual presentations at the Atlanta Fox Theatre and for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Society at the Walt Disney Concert Hall organ. Clark is the organist of choice for many of the American Theatre Organ Society’s international convention silent film presentations and has scored pictures for Kino International for public DVD release. 

Clark Wilson has supervised organ installations throughout North America and England and has provided consulting and voicing expertise for several different organ companies in theatre organ styling and silent film accompaniment and at the Indiana University School of Music. He has developed curriculum and been appointed to the organ faculty at the University of Oklahoma’s Organ Department, teaching applied theatre organ lessons, silent film scoring, and the history of the American theatre organ, the first such program to exist since 1929. In addition to several articles published in Theatre Organ magazine, he has recently authored an article on film scoring for The American Organist magazine, periodical of the American Guild of Organists.