New York Guitar Festival: Dan Zanes & Gyan Riley

Silent Films/Live Guitars: groundbreaking guitarists premiere scores for silent films
by Buster Keaton.

Dan Zanes premieres his original score for Buster Keaton's Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928), in which a young Mississippi steamboat captain falls in love with the daughter of his father’s business rival. “Buster Keaton’s movies always look to me like the most graceful sculpture I’ve ever seen, but which upon close examination is only a pile of driftwood and bent nails," says Zanes. "I hope to reflect that in my music.”

Grammy winner Dan Zanes, a member of the 80s band the Del Fuegos and current front man for Dan Zanes and Friends, is equally at home with rock, Broadway tunes, Latin American music and the gospel tradition among other genres and has collaborated with artists ranging from Lou Reed and Roseanne Cash to Carol Channing and the Pilobolus Dance Company. His wildly popular family concerts regularly sell out venues like Carnegie Hall.

Gyan Riley, whose diverse work focuses on his own compositions, improvisation and contemporary classical repertoire, performs as a soloist and in various ensembles, including performances with Zakir Hussain, Dawn Upshaw, the San Francisco Symphony, the Falla Guitar Trio, the World Guitar Ensemble and his dad, the composer/pianist/vocalist Terry Riley. At Merkin he will premiere a score for Buster Keatons' The Goat (1921), in which Keaton's character gets mistaken for a murderer with a price on his head.