Ben Model

Ben Model is one of the nation’s leading silent film accompanists For more than 40 years, he has created and performed several hundred live scores for silent films on piano and theatre organ. He is thrilled to be back at the TCM Classic Film Festival to accompany a screening of THE FRESHMAN (1925).

Ben is a resident film accompanist at the Museum of Modern Art (NY) and at the Library of Congress’ Packard Campus Theatre, as well as a regular at the TCM Classic Film Festival, the Kansas Silent Film Festival, and at Capitolfest in upstate NY. His recorded scores can be heard on numerous Blu-Ray and DVD releases from Kino Lorber, Milestone Films, and his own label Undercrank Productions, as well as on Turner Classic Movies. Ben’s Undercrank Productions has restored and released many rare undiscovered gems of the silent era that have been out of circulation since the 1920s. These discs including films starring Marion Davies, Tom Mix, and Raymond Griffith, as well as lesser-known comedians such as Edward Everett Horton, Marcel Perez, Alice Howell, and Baby Peggy, all released through of a co-branding arrangement with the Library of Congress. 

Ben is a regular accompanist at classic film festivals around the U.S.A., and he performs at universities, museums, and historic theaters. Ben is the producer and co-founder of The Silent Clowns Film Series, now celebrating it its 27th season in NYC. Ben has co-curated several silent film series for MoMA and co-curates a monthly silents series at the Cinema Arts Centre on Long Island.

Ben has composed orchestral scores for several silent comedy shorts which are performed annually by ensembles around the U.S. and internationally. In his capacity as archivist for the Ernie Kovacs collection, he has programmed three DVD box sets of Ernie Kovacs television shows and is co-editor of the book Ernie In Kovacsland (2023, Fantagraphics Books). 

Ben is a Visiting Professor of Film at Wesleyan University, where he teaches a course on silent film history. His book The Silent Film Universe will be published in June 2025.

His website is silentfilmmusic.com