Piano Quartet #1

From the "Broken Blossoms" film score premiering at The Film Society of Lincoln Center in 2008, the Piano Quartet #1 draws on the dramatic extremes from the 1919 silent classic film by D.W. Griffith.

Turner Classic Movies airs the full score for orchestra, piano trio & guitar, throughout their Silent Sundays series, along with other Kryszak film scores, "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde", and "A Christmas Past", a collection of the very earliest ventures into film as a narrative medium.

Piano Quartet #1 is based on the piano trio, guitar & orchestra film score, with thanks to Sandra Birnhak, Charles Tabesh, and The Film Society of Lincoln Center, with musicians Gregory Docenko, Ivan Docenko & Bryan Eckenrode premiering the live score with the composer at Lincoln Center in 2008.

Kryszak Music Reviews:

"His classical pieces are beautifully wrought, and include a lovely set of works for clarinet and orchestra (which he released as All The Luck, in 2008), several sets of piano works, and Having an Atonal Christmas, for string quartet and harp, as well as soundtrack music for silent films, including an inventive flute and guitar score for The Hunchback of Notre Dame and a piano concerto that doubled as a score for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde¸ and that the pianist Anthony DeMare has recorded. "

- Allan Kozinn: San Francisco Classical Voice

"Kryszak has earned something of a national reputation for his work as a composer of new scores for silent films. He composed several scores for live presentations by the prestigious Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York City, including D.W. Griffith's 1919 silent classic Broken Blossoms. His scores were subsequently recorded and released with the films by Turner Classic Movies."

- Jan Jezario: Artvoice

"A large part of the ("Soft Clowns of the Sea") album... is instrumental and mostly acoustic; tracks that demonstrate not only Kryszak's compositional mastery but also his prowess on guitar, bass and keyboards."

- Mark Hughs: Dutch Prog Rock Report

Al Kryszak is a composer, filmmaker, pianist & guitarist based in Maine. Work includes Turner Classic Movies, The Film Society of Lincoln Center, The New England Film Orchestra, The American Festival of Microtonal Music, Mabou Mines, June-in-Buffalo, Symphony Space, LA Directors Guild, & KINO. He is on the Creative Arts/Media Faculty at the University of Maine at Machias, Unity College & Southern New Hampshire University. Kryszak studied at SUNY Buffalo with Lukas Foss, Morton Feldman, Bill Kothe, Louis Andriessen & Lou Harrison.