Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra: The General (1926)
Thursday, Apr. 2, 2026 · 7 pm - 9 pm Longmont Museum 400 Quail Rd., Longmont, CO 80501
The General 1926 | 75 min.
Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra returns to provide live orchestration for one of the most revered comedies of the silent era. Buster Keaton stars as hapless Southern railroad engineer Johnny Gray who faces off against Union soldiers during the American Civil War.
This program is part of our Thursday Nights @ the Museum series. Join us every Thursday from Jan. 22 until May 7 for concerts, films, and free talks in the Longmont Museum’s Stewart Auditorium.
The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra is a five piece chamber ensemble that revives the repertoire of silent film orchestras. Using historic libraries of music, and selecting and fitting a piece of music for each scene in the film, Mont Alto compiles vibrant and emotional scores using the original techniques of silent film orchestras. “The results are often breathtakingly beautiful and always in the strict service of the film on the screen.” (Dave Kehr, The New York Times.) Mont Alto was formed in Colorado in 1989, and has scored over 125 silent films, recording over 40 film scores for releases on DVD, Blu-Ray, and for showings on Turner Classic Movies. The Mont Alto Orchestra appears regularly at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, the Telluride Film Festival, the TCM Classic Film Festival, the Denver Silent Film Festival, the Chautauqua Auditorium film series, and the Kansas Silent Film Festival. They have toured the country from Films at Lincoln Center in New York to Grauman’s Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. Their most recent release is “Entreaty,” a CD of silent film compositions for romantic scenes. Mont Alto collects original compositions and orchestrations from the turn of the century through 1930 for its tea dance series, silent film presentations, and concerts. Rodney Sauer also presents concert-lectures on photoplay music history and practice.
