Local Young Composer Featured at Silent Film Festival in Idaho
It has nearly been a year since Isabella Morrill sat down in a dark room in total silence for 95 minutes and watched the old classic movie called Sunrise – a Song of Two Humans. The movie was selected to be shown at the Kenworthy Silent Film Festival in September 2024, and Morrill was to compose a new musical score over the old film. The director of the Kenworthy Theater, Colin Mannex, watched the movie with Morrill and wanted to know if the film inspired the young composer concerning the project. The original music was muted so that Morrill would not be influenced by it.
”I watched the film and felt the emotions even without the music”, Isabella Morrill shared. She recounts hearing her own music in her mind while watching, and developed the basic idea of what she wanted to compose to accompany the film’s plot. The final product had those original ideas included.
On September 4th, on the opening night of the Silent Film Festival in Moscow, Idaho, the audience got to experience something phenomenal when Morrill’s composition was played live by the Washington-Idaho Symphony, under the director, Dr. Danh Pham, while the romantic drama Sunrise played in the background on a big screen. The music carried throughout the story and captured the deep emotions of the characters, and the audience cried, laughed and at the end gave a standing ovation to the composer and the musicians.
The movie, which originally featured then new sound-on-film system, was directed by German director F.W. Murnau in 1927, and produced by William Fox. Sunrise won the Academy Award for Unique and Artistic Picture at the first Academy Award in 1929. The lead actress, Janet Gaynor, won the Best Actress in a Leading Role. Gaynor played the wife of a farmer (George O’Brien) who fell for another woman. That woman selfishly tries to convince the farmer to murder his wife so he would be hers alone. The dramatic and emotional story was adapted from Carl Mayer’s short story “The Excursion to Tilsit” from 1917.
Connections and Collaborations
After Isabella Morrill, at only 19 years old, won the highly respected “Merrill Jones Young Band Composition Contest” for young composers under age 40 in 2022, she received a phone call from Dr. Danh Pham. Dr. Pham is a professor of music at Washington State University and the music director of the Washington-Idaho Symphony. He had learned about the award and wanted to know more about Morrill’s work. One thing led to another, and Dr. Pham invited Morrill to do a composer residency at Washington State University in Pullman in February 2023. Later in November she was invited to another residency working with the Washington-Idaho Symphony in Moscow, and the ensemble played her orchestral work “Tehom el Tehom” at the University of Idaho.
The director of the Kenworthy Theater and the Silent Film Festival, Colin Mannex, also attended this concert to hear what kind of music Morrill created. During Morrill’s residency in Moscow they found a moment to watch the Sunrise together, and the project got its official start.
Over several months Morrill concentrated on developing her idea and worked to finalize the score minute by minute. This was done while she was finishing her degree at Western Oregon University, graduating with BA in music composition in March. Morrill also traveled to the University of Kansas in April to do a residency and had one of her pieces premiered by the University of Kansas Wind Ensemble. In June she traveled to Washington DC where one of her compositions was played by the United States Air Force Band after she was accepted to a mentorship program. In the midst of a busy schedule Morrill was also planning her wedding, set for August 3rd.
Isabella Morrill graduated from Warrenton High School in 2020 and then attended Western Oregon University for her undergraduate studies. At WOU Morrill studied under professor, Dr. Kevin Walczyk, who encouraged her to pursue her dream to compose for band and orchestra. Morrill’s works have been recognized widely and recently her piece “Voyage of Northern Lights” was listed one of the Editor’s Choices on JW Pepper website, which is a resource for music teachers to find music for their students.
