Three Questions for Bruce Vogt
Renowned Pianist to Play Special Performance
By Michael Sobota
Renowned Canadian pianist Bruce Vogt is coming to Thunder Bay for a unique musical experience, bringing his exceptional skill at silent movie piano accompaniment to his appearance here in September.
Vogt has been a featured artist with some of the finest orchestras around the world, as well as performing as a solo artist. He has also been a teacher in the faculty of music at the University of Victoria. He is being brought to Thunder Bay by retired Thunder Bay TBSO pianist Heather Morrison and friends Chris Arnone and Jeannie Dubois. North of Superior Film Association (NOSFA) is also pleased to support this unique cultural event.
The Walleye: You have a broad career in teaching and performance, and have travelled the world in doing so. What brought you to sit down in darkened rooms to accompany silent movies?
Bruce Vogt: When I was a teenager, my brother and I used to borrow from the library an 8 or 16 mm projector and chewed up copies, mostly of Chaplin but occasionally Laurel and Hardy. We watched them silently, no music, no accompaniment. When I was in university, a woman teaching a summer course on silent film, having heard I improvised, asked if I would accompany the films for the course. “Why not?” I thought, and so I played for many films. In the last 25 years or so, it’s become a passion. Now it’s more than a hobby—it’s something many audiences treasure.
TW: Do you have a favourite silent film you enjoy accompanying?
BV: I go through quite a few favourites. Right now, as well as [Buster] Keaton’s features—particularly Sherlock Junior, The General, and Our Hospitality—I’m quite taken with Mary Pickford, films starring Lillian Gish, silent films by Lubitsch, and many others.
TW: What advice do you have for listeners and viewers? What would you like us to take away from the experience?
BV: Well, I don’t really have any. It’s totally okay to take these films seriously, as they are remarkable. It was a golden age, with much experimentation and of course a focus on the visual. The biggest compliment I get is when people say, “I’d forgotten you were playing,” so that my accompaniment had merged into the film experience.
Bruce Vogt will appear at Trinity Hall (Park Avenue entrance) on September 18 at 7:30 pm accompanying Charlie Chaplin’s The Immigrant and Buster Keaton’s Our Hospitality, and again on September 19 at 2:30 pm accompanying Charlie Chaplin’s The Rink, Buster Keaton’s The Scarecrow, and Laurel and Hardy’s The Battle of the Century, and at 7:30 pm accompanying a closing screening of Charlie Chaplin’s The Cure and Mary Pickford’s Sparrows.
Tickets for each show are $15 for adults and $5 for children under 12. Two-day passes for all screenings are available for $40. Passes can be purchased in advance at Fireweed. Individual tickets available at the door.
