Hugo Max Scores Silent Cinema: Nosferatu (1922)
We are thrilled to welcome musician, writer, lecturer and filmmaker Hugo Max for this unique event in which Hugo will improvise a live score on solo viola to Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922), F. W. Murnau’s classic of the silent era.
An iconic film of the German expressionist cinema, and one of the most famous of all silent movies, F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu continues to haunt modern audiences with the unshakable power of its images.
In what was the first-ever screen adaptation of "Bram Stoker’s Dracula", a simple real-estate transaction leads an intrepid businessman deep into the superstitious heart of Transylvania. There he encounters the otherworldly Count Orlok — portrayed by the legendary Max Schreck, in a performance the very backstory of which has spawned its own mythology — who soon after embarks upon a cross-continental voyage to take up residence in a distant new land… and establish his ambiguous dominion.
Hugo's performance at Aldeburgh is part of a UK-wide tour: Hugo Max Scores Silent Cinema.
Hugo Max - Biography
Hugo Max is a violist and violinist, artist and filmmaker.
Drawn to parallels between filmmaking and collective musicmaking, he has been concertmaster of Echo Ensemble, OUPhilharmonic and the Oxford Baroque Players.
As a chamber musician he has performed at venues including the Royal Albert Hall’s Elgar Room, St. Martin-in-the-Fields and the Holywell Music Room where he curated a triptych of multidisciplinary concerts.
He is a lecturer on improvisation and multidisciplinary practice at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.
Max’s filmography as writer-director includes Dissonance, a short film observing a string quartet in rehearsal, which has screened at festivals in Germany, Canada, Japan and South Korea.
Premieres of his work have been hosted by Modern Art Oxford, Close-Up Film Centre and the Sheldonian Theatre.
Max is the author of three publications: "Kosher Giraffe Trilogy" (2024), "The Dissonance Book" (2023) & "The
Stanley Series" (2020).