This Sunday, January 3, 2016 at 4 pm, the Christ Church Concert Series presents the 1928 film “The Circus” written and directed by Charlie Chaplin.
The plot involves the ringmaster of an impoverished circus who hires Chaplin’s most memorable on-screen character and an icon in world cinema during the silent film era, The Tramp, who discovers that he can only be funny unintentionally, not on purpose. The film stars Chaplin, Al Ernest Garcia, Merna Kennedy, Harry Crocker, George Davis, and Henry Bergman.
Accompanying the film will be Michael Britt, well known silent film organist as well as organist at Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, at the four manual Rodgers 484 organ recently installed during renovations at Christ Church in downtown Easton.
Michael T. Britt, a Baltimore native, began piano studies with Gwendolyn Logston. At age twelve, Britt entered the Peabody Preparatory School where he studied piano with Joyze Sutherland, James Warthen and organ with Gretchen Benchoff. In 1979 he entered the Peabody Conservatory of Music where he studied organ with Dr. Paul L. Davis and Improvisation/Sacred Music with Arthur Rhea. Mr. Britt graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Organ Performance having been the recipient of the Richard L. Phelps Award and a three-time recipient of the Richard Ross Award for organ. In 1980, he became the Associate Organist at the Shrine of the Little Flower and in 1981, was appointed Minister of Music where he served for nearly 26 years. In 1984 he was a finalist in the Arthur Poister competition in Syracuse, New York. Further studies have been with Thomas Spacht, Donald Sutherland, John Rose and John Walker.
As well as being a frequent recitalist of classical organ literature, Michael Britt is a performer of theatre organ music and is in demand throughout the country as a silent film accompanist, performing for chapters of the American Theatre Organ Society and most recently, for the Region III-American Guild of Organists Convention in Baltimore. He has been featured on Maryland Public Television and other televised presentations on the theatre pipe organ and Maryland’s Free State Theatre Organ Society.
In 1998, Mr. Britt was invited to perform at Baltimore’s Senator Theatre where he accompanied five silent films for the National Film Registry Tour, which was sponsored in part by the Library of Congress. He has also performed at the Palace Theatre in Cleveland, Ohio; The Paramount Theatre in Anderson, Indiana; The Byrd Theatre in Richmond, Virginia as well as yearly performances at the Capitol Theatre in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. In 2002, Mr. Britt was invited to perform a series of concerts on the recently restored Aeolian pipe organ installed at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington, D.C. In 2005, he was invited to Princeton University to accompany the silent film classic, “Phantom of the Opera” at the University Chapel where recently, he completed his tenth performance of this annual event.
Sunday’s concert is free and open to the public, and a freewill offering will be received. The church is located at 111 S. Harrison Street and doors open at 3:30 p.m. The Christ Church Series is partially funded by the Talbot County and Maryland State Arts Councils. For more information, call 410-822-2677 or visit www.christchurcheaston.org.
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