Music and a movie with a message
Chris Jarrett
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Harkening back to the days of silent films, Chris Jarrett will play his way through Battleship Potemkin.
Pianist and composer Jarrett promises excitement, strong messages and expressive pictures and music as he brings Project Potemkin to Sidney next week.
The Potemkin project dates back to the 1980s when Jarret, who was born in 1956 in Allentown, PA but now lives in Europe, was asked to score a series of movies for a theatre in northern Germany.
“They asked me to compose and play for films like Faust, Danton, Nosferatu and Battleship Potemkin. I discovered my love for the latter film then and decided to keep it on my program and revised it many times since,” he said. “I have performed this in many places in the world — including Russia, the Ukraine and Serbia, where most have seen the film before many times. I have an inkling that the movie — unanimously voted the best film ever by leading directors over and over again — hasn’t had the chance it needs in Canada until now.”
Jarrett underlines Sergei Eisenstien’s movie Battleship Potemkin, in a way seen as much more than accompaniment; it is a personal comment, taking a stand for those politically oppressed and mistreated.
“Potemkin is about opression and the defence against it. The movie is a classic and as such is in no way out-dated,” Jarrett said. “But it reminds us of something many have forgotten today: the basic sovereignty of the human being as opposed to the forces of ruling powers. It has a kind of Russian ‘yes, we can’ message imploring us to use our talents of empathy and solidarity to undermine the cold and distant antics of power misuse. It inspires us to set our risk limits higher to do so.”
Jarrett, the son of a Slavic family, grew up in the woods of the Appalachians and began to play the piano at the age of 13. He got free lessons from Austrian pianist Vinzent Ruzicka. After finishing school he studied piano and music history at the Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio. Unhappy with the elitist attitude there and penniless, he started wandering. He worked and lived as a shrimp fisherman on the Gulf of Mexico, factory worker in Texas, office clerk in New York City and kitchen help in London. He wound up in Europe. Since he started his career in Germany in 1985, Jarrett has created operas, oratorios, ballet music, symphonic pieces, music for film and theater and numerous piano compositions. Jarrett has recorded nine CDs of his music and has played concerts all over Europe and the US as well as Egypt and Tunisia.
Jarrett will perform Nov. 3 starting at 2 p.m. in the Charlie White Theatre. Tickets are $25 for adults and $20 for students. Visit www.chrisjarrett.de for more about the artist.
reporter@peninsulanewsreview.com
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