The New School to Present World Premiere of New Score to the Iconic Film METROPOLIS

The New School's College of Performing Arts will present the world premiere of a new score to the iconic film, METROPOLIS, composed by Mannes School of Music student, Amir Sanjari, performed live to the film by the Mannes Orchestra.

This event is free and open to the public with registration.

"Among the many things that are magical about masterpieces of the silent film era is the possibility of creating new musical sound worlds for extraordinary moving images. This is just what our student composer Amir Sanjari has done with Fritz Lang's legendary Metropolis, where the brilliant young composer of 2024 joins forces with the 1927 thunderbolt of silent film history," said Richard Kessler, Executive Dean, College of Performing Arts and Dean, Mannes School of Music.

The (Un)Silent Film series has been critical in advancing the resurgence of film screenings with live music and has been hosted by Matthew Broderick, Bill Irwin, Rob Bartlett, Ed Rothstein, and Michael Bacon.

(Un)Silent Film nights have presented the world premieres of works composed for The Birds and The Immigrant (by Nathan Kamal and Alexis Cuadrado respectively), a New York premiere of a score by Hollywood composer Craig Marks for the film Sherlock, Jr., and Charlie Chaplin's original scores for Gold Rush and other Chaplin classics.

"Fritz Lang got the idea for Metropolis when he was in Manhattan in the 1920s promoting another movie of his. Knowing this, I took inspiration from the city itself. The buildings, the art and many other things in New York City inspired me to write the score. In addition, I was very inspired by minimalism and the repetition of musical ideas, so I tried to incorporate that in my score," said composer Amir Sanjari.

(Un)Silent Film: World premiere score for METROPOLIS
Composed by Amir Sanjari
Conductor, Robert Kahn

METROPOLIS (1927)
Director: Fritz Lang
Written by: Thea von Harbou, Fritz Lang