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Your
host is Paul D. Lehrman
Updated:
December 26, 2020
NOW ON THE WEB FOR 21 years!
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Another robotic Ballet mécanique, in Austria
A completely new robotic orchestra performing Ballet mécanique, designed and programmed by Winfried Ritsch, was exhibited at the Kunsthaus Museum in Graz, Austria, from June 27 through October 20, 2019.
Through the use of custom Vorsetzers and percussion robots, Ritsch was able to perform
the piece at a tempo close to Antheil's theoretical speed of 155 beats per minute!
Click here for more…
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BALLET MECANIQUE at the MOVIES!
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Now available on DVD, Blu-Ray, and your favorite streaming platform!
This award-winning "American Masters" film by Alexandra Dean tells the story of how George Antheil and Hedy Lamarr invented "frequency hopping," a concept that is basis of cellphone, WiFi, and Bluetooth!
Hedy Lamarr, the glamour icon whose ravishing visage was the inspiration for Snow White and Cat Woman, was a technological trailblazer who perfected a radio system to throw Nazi torpedoes off course during WWII.
Weaving interviews and clips with never-before-heard audio tapes of Hedy speaking on the record about her incredible life—from her beginnings as an Austrian Jewish emigre to her scandalous nude scene in the 1933 film Ecstasy to her glittering Hollywood life to her ground-breaking, but completely uncredited inventions, to her latter years when she became a recluse, impoverished and almost forgotten — BOMBSHELL: THE HEDY LAMARR STORY from Zeitgeist Films brings to light the story of an unusual and accomplished woman, spurned as too beautiful to be smart, but a role model to this day.
Watch the trailer… |
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Telly
Bronze award
First prize
Int'l
Festival
of Films on Science,
Budapest
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the
award-winning documentary film by Paul Lehrman & Ron
Frank
Featured
on 
Now streaming on Amazon Direct Video!
•••Read
the review from the late, lamented Boston  •••
"A
TERRIFIC FILM, perhaps the
most original and interesting
independent documentary I have screened
this year."—WETA-TV |
"A
must-have for any music lover into
off-the-beaten-track music."—Audiophile
Audition |
"A
compelling look at a fascinating
man—ESSENTIAL VIEWING
for lovers of 20th-century
music and a great introduction
for those of us whose tastes
are less noisily inclined." —NEFilm.com |
"OUTSTANDING.
Absolutely fascinating."—The
Boston Phoenix |
"Stimulating,
informative, TOTALLY ENTERTAINING.
A well-made documentary which
everyone interested in music must see."—The
Audio Engineering Society |
"DON'T
MISS IT!"—The
Independent Film Monthly |
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Don't
know what the Ballet mécanique
is? Click here…
or follow
the hand for a tour
of the history of
this
INCREDIBLE piece
of musical multimedia… |
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Two award-winning film collections featuring
the Ballet mécanique
Unseen Cinema & NEW! Masterworks of American Avant-Garde Experimental Film
"One of the major monuments of the DVD medium!"
"The must-have release of the year!"-
FILM COMMENT
Winner, LOS ANGELES FILM CRITICS Special Citation |
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“This
disc is certain to become a party record for technophiles, but just about everyone else will have fun too!”
says  .
Read the entire review…
“If
Holst's Mars was the bringer of war,
then Ballet Mécanique sounds like war itself.”
says  (UK).
Read the entire review…
“A hell of a
racket, exciting and brutal at the same time.”
says ClassicalCDreview.com. Read the entire
review… |
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Now available! The CD of Ballet mécanique and Antheil's Jazz Symphonyfrom the Boston Modern Orchestra Project,
conducted by Gil Rose
reviewed in the November 2017 issue of Gramophone
(although they spelled his name wrong) |
March 6-7, 2017
A mini-Festival @ Tufts University, Medford MA
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featuring the US Premiere of a new arrangement
of the legendary Ballet mécanique
for
solo piano and acousmonium*…
*a stage full of loudspeakers
with a new 2K print of the Léger/Murphy film
Ballet mécanique
Download the poster and full program! |
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Second US Performance: March 9, 2017 @ Brown University, Providence, RI
Grant Recital Hall,
Orwig Music Building
The North American premiere was on
April 21, 2016 at the Big Apple Jam! by the
Salle Pierre-Mercure / Centre Pierre-Péladeau
Montreal, Québec |
 But we
bombed (so to speak) in Germany!!!
The world premiere of this new version was scheduled for October 24, 2013 at the SinusTon Festival, in Magdeburg, Germany
…but had to be
postponed due
to the discovery of a
1000-pound
unexploded bomb
dropped by the
Americans in World War II in the center of Magdeburg!
Local authorities disarmed the bomb, and there
were no injuries or damage. |
 The Festival's opening concert took place October 26.
Videos here and here
More about the bomb here…
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More
recent
performances: |
March 16-17, 2018
MECHANICAL BALLET at the
New Zealand Festival
Wellington, March 16-17 |
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November
26 ,
2013 • Oporto, Portugal • Drumming—Grupo
de Percussào
live performance with the Léger/Murphy film
"It
was a great adventure and pleasure to perform this
work." |
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April
7, 2013 • Nashville,
TN • VORTEX
live performance with the Léger/Murphy film
"Thunderous
standing ovation!" |
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December
7, 2012 & March 13, 2013 • Brussels
in
concert, and with the Léger/Murphy film
"Huge
success! Beauty, purity and fun!" |
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Don't
know what the Ballet mécanique
is? Click here…
or follow
the hand for a tour
of the history of
this
INCREDIBLE piece
of musical multimedia… |
|
|
|
Two award-winning film collections featuring
the Ballet mécanique
Unseen Cinema & NEW! Masterworks of American Avant-Garde Experimental Film
"One of the major monuments of the DVD medium!"-
"The must-have release of the year!"-
FILM COMMENT
Winner, LOS ANGELES FILM CRITICS Special Citation |
|
MORE
PERFORMANCES:
in
Germany…
July
19 & 20, 2011 • Oldenburg
Live performance
with the Léger/Murphy
film |
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in
England… |
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November 22, 2009
Antheil's
rarely-heard 1925 Ballet mécanique—the single-pianola
version—was performed by
Anglia Sinfonia at Anglia Ruskin University's West
Road Concert Hall, in Cambridge. The pianola
soloist was the estimable Rex Lawson, and the conductor
was Paul Jackson. Watch it on  |
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in
Chicago…
Dada
Machinations, at the Harris
Theater for Music and Dance
"Termites
running the asylum!…a spectacle hard
to forget…giving the performance a primal
intensity…Clutched the audience and
didn't let go!"— Chicago
Sun-Times |
 "A
HAPPY RIOT" in WASHINGTON, DC…
In 2006, in conjunction with a huge exhibit on Dadaist
art, the National Gallery of Art hosted the
premiere of the Ballet
mécanique Automated Orchestra, performing
what the critics called "The
best 10 minutes of free fun in Washington!"
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 …Mécanique
in MIAMI
The Ballet
mécanique
Automated Orchestra was
again in residence in December
2007 at the  Museum
of Florida International
University and was the
smash hit of the world-famous ArtBasel
Festival!
 said: "This
outrageous work is best experienced in unsafe
mode, where its mechanistic ferocity and
riotous noise can make full, deafening impact…"
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We
have received an Award from the Encyclopedia Britannica
WATCH
THE VIDEO!
