The Phantom of the Opera
Original silent film with live organ accompaniment
Sunday, October 25, 2026, 7:00 pm
Lon Chaney's legendary performance as the Phantom and Mary Philbin's Christine remain among the defining images of early Hollywood horror. In the resonant acoustic of St. James by-the-Sea, the Rosales/Parsons pipe organ becomes the film's living soundtrack, supplying color, menace, romance, and theatrical thunder in real time. This is a cinema-night event with real musical risk: no canned score, no safety net, just organ, imagination, and a very large shadow in the opera house. Live accompaniment restores something essential to the original experience of silent cinema. Martin responds moment by moment to gesture, atmosphere, editing, and dramatic tension, shaping a score that exists only once. The organ can whisper beneath an intimate scene, sharpen a flash of comedy, or unleash the weight of its 4,551 pipes when the Phantom claims the screen. Audiences familiar with the film will discover new details through the music; first-time viewers will encounter a landmark of early Hollywood in the form for which it was made. With limited-view, regular, and premium seating, this season-opening performance brings together classic film, architectural atmosphere, and the unpredictable energy of live music. The program is designed to welcome both experienced listeners and people encountering this repertoire for the first time. Its pacing allows musical contrasts to register clearly while sustaining a unified dramatic and emotional arc. The resonant interior of St. James becomes an active part of the experience, enriching sustained sound and bringing quieter details into focus. Audience members are invited to notice changing textures, expressive use of silence, and the relationship between individual lines and the larger whole. Together these elements create an occasion that is immediate, thoughtful, and shared.
About the Artist
Garrett F. Martin serves as Organist and Director of Music Ministries at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Buffalo, New York, where he oversees choirs, worship music, visiting artists, and the care of Westminster's Aeolian-Skinner organs and Steinway pianos. He plans worship and liturgy, coordinates the Westminster Presents series, and conducts and performs for worship and special services. His background includes degrees from Carson-Newman University, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Texas at Austin, previous church positions in Tennessee, Florida, and Texas, and artistic leadership with the Buffalo Gay Men's Chorus. For this silent-film program, Martin brings the particular gifts of a church musician to the movie house: long-form pacing, instinctive registration, and the ability to turn a single organ into a full theatrical cast.