Biography
The Curse of the Vampire Orchestra is an international orchestra that is reinventing live performance to silent film.
The orchestra’s conductor, Philip Shorey, composes the music played by the group. Through these fresh scores the films are reinterpreted with Shorey’s use of classic orchestral instrumentation, industrial percussion, electronica, and a full choir.
Philip Shorey – Maestro
As a teenager, Philip Shorey dreamed of being a film composer and fell in love with the works of Philip Glass and Bernard Herman. Just before graduation from the Institute of Production and Recording in Minneapolis he brought a marionette theatre to Brazil. There he discovered his life might have a bigger impact in the streets as a busker with a puppet theatre presenting a story of God’s love than trying to make it in Hollywood. Fast forward 15 years of traveling the world with his puppet theatre, teaching piano, and doing small theatre and film gigs in town, Shorey was offered an opportunity in Poland to compose the music to Nosferatu – A Symphony of Horror (1922).
The live orchestral film score premiered in July of 2018 at SLOT Art Festival in Poland and then the American debut was sold out at the Music Box Theatre of Minneapolis in October 2018.
The Curse of the Vampire Orchestra has continued to grow as an international production and community of artists where new ideas are explored and cinematic accompaniment is redefined.