Dracula: Live in Concert

Kronos Quartet
Philip Glass, piano
Mick Rossi, keyboards and director

Co-presented with Segerstrom Center for the Arts

Dracula (1931)
Directed by Tod Browning

On Halloween weekend, see the 1931 horror classic Dracula starring Bela Lugosi on the big screen accompanied by a live performance of the film’s hypnotic instrumental score by legendary composer and pianist Philip Glass and the Kronos Quartet.

Considered to be one of the most influential composers ever to work in film, Philip Glass has reinvented the relationship between music and the moving image. Rather than simply providing music as accompaniment to an otherwise finished film, Glass considers music an essential narrative force and has worked as a true collaborator with directors including Godfrey Reggio, Martin Scorcese, Errol Morris, Peter Weir and Stephen Daldry among many others, conceptualizing the score from the initial stages of the film and sharing in the editing process. From the beginnings of his work in film, the composer saw the potential for his film scores to be played live in concert. The events are a synthesis of music concert and film event—the merger creates an intense performance experience far more powerful than cinema alone. Glass has also brought a new life to vintage cinamatic classics, reinventing these legendary films for a new live context.

Glass composed the intense and sweeping Dracula score for the Kronos Quartet when he was asked by Universal to create a score for this early talkie. Appearing together live along with the original horror classic shown in its entirety, Glass and Kronos perform a concert of one of the most intense and atmospheric scores Philip Glass has ever written.