Pianist and composer Peter Tavalin will bring an iconic silent film to life with a score improvised and performed live during a free film screening of the classic silent film Steamboat Bill, Jr.

In the 1928 comedy starring Buster Keaton, two college students return to the South after attending college in Boston and fall in love despite both of their fathers’ objections. The couple’s romance goes awry with prat falls, floods, a tornado, and other slapstick adventures. The film includes Keaton’s most famous and dangerous stunt when the entire two-ton façade of a house crashes to the ground around him while he stands in the precise location of an open second-story window.

Takoma Park resident Peter Tavalin has improvised live scores for more than 25 silent films during the past 30 years and has performed at film festivals, First Night celebrations, universities, and public schools across the country. Trained at the Berklee College of Music, he plays a synthesizer to create a modern sensibility that conveys the sounds of an entire orchestra.

“The synthesizer provides a big palette of sounds,” he said. “Simple, sweet strings with a flute for one scene, brass blaring for another with cymbals crashing when the action on the screen gets more frantic.”

The Takoma Park Arts series is organized by the City of Takoma Park's Arts and Humanities Division and includes free film screenings, art exhibitions, poetry readings, theater, and dance performances at the Takoma Park Community Center at 7500 Maple Avenue. No tickets or reservations are required. You can sign up for our weekly e-newsletter to receive more info at takomaparkmd.gov/arts.