Organ Grandmasters with Berry van Berkum & Ruben Drenth

An exciting encounter of film, organ and trumpet. During this special concert, Alfred Hitchcock’s silent classic The Lodger (1927) will be screened, with live improvised music by organist Berry van Berkum and trumpeter Ruben Drenth.

Berry van Berkum reacts live to the images and lets the organ give voice to the tension, the drama and the subcutaneous threat of the film. The improvisations are complemented and challenged by the expressive sounds of trumpeter Ruben Drenth. This creates a unique soundtrack that is recreated every performance. A film classic like you’ve never experienced it before: live, exciting and completely improvised.

The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog is a 1927 British silent thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980) and starring Marie Ault, Arthur Chesney, June Tripp, Malcolm Keen, and Ivor Novello. It was Hitchcock’s third feature film and was released on February 14, 1927 in London and on June 10, 1928 in New York. The film is based on the 1913 novel The Lodger by Marie Belloc Lowndes and the play “Who Is He?”, co-written by Belloc Lowndes. The story revolves around the hunt for a serial killer in London who looks like Jack the Ripper.
The film was Hitchcock’s first thriller and established his reputation as a director. At its release, the trade magazine Bioscope wrote: “It is possible that this film is the best British production ever”. In a strategy for self-promotion, he made his first cameo appearance in a film in The Lodger, in which he sits in a newspaper news studio.
Hitchcock’s career started when he left for Berlin in 1920 and was influenced by expressionism, the important film movement in which the emotions of the characters were depicted by means of design (sets, light, colour, locations, etc.). Filmmakers such as Friedrich Murnau, Fritz Lang and Robert Wiene worked in Berlin’s famous studios.
Characteristic of German expressionism is that the films are often exciting and creepy and deal with criminals, ghosts, monsters, religion and murderers. Alfred Hitchcock is impressed by the famous German director Fritz Lang, in Hitchcock’s own words the only director who ever influenced him. In Lang’s films, the crimes of the often evil characters were not the most important thing. Much more important in Lang’s work were the psychological motives of the characters and thus the background of the crimes committed. Psychological motifs, design and technique would later run like a thread through Hitchcock’s oeuvre.
The influence of Hitchcock on the thriller genre can hardly be overestimated. Which thriller director hasn’t been influenced by his impressive films?!
The Lodger is considered one of Hitchcock’s first major films and transports the viewer into a dark London that is rocked by a series of murders. A mysterious tenant moves into a room with a family, but the question soon arises: who is this stranger and what secrets does he carry with him?

Berry van Berkum studied organ, improvisation and piano at the conservatory in Arnhem. Studied further with Bert van den Brink (improvisation) and with Andries van Rossem and Klaas de Vries (composition). He has won several prizes at international organ competitions (including at the Dollard Festival D). He can be heard as a soloist on several CDs with works by Bach, Böhm, Frescobaldi, Messiaen, and Welmers.
As an improviser he is active in the field of film accompaniment and jazz. He regularly plays in silent films in churches and theaters. After years of playing with jazz saxophonist Gijs Hendriks, Nippy Noya and many others, he is currently part of the HOT (The Organ Trio, www.hetorgeltrio.nl founded in 2013  ). This experimental trio played at many national and international festivals, such as several times during Toulouse les Orgues (F). Their CDs ‘Bird Beyond’, inspired by music by Charlie “Bird” Parker, ‘Reflections of Duke’, ‘Sweelinck New jazz from the 17th century’ and Colors of Hendrix received unanimous rave reviews.
Van Berkum has performed as a soloist with music from Bach to Gubaidulina in Europe and the United States. He gave masterclasses in improvisation at home and abroad. In 2024 he was a jury member of the International Improvisation Competition during the International Organ Festival Haarlem. In 2011 he was appointed organist of the Nicolaïkerk in Utrecht and as artistic advisor of the Stichting Culturele Evenementen Nicolaïkerk. Since 2017 he has also been organist of the Dominican Church in Zwolle.
In addition, he has been working as a composer since 2000, writing dozens of works for a wide variety of ensembles. In 2023 he wrote the composition “outdoor-Indoor” for carillon, clarinet and organ commissioned by the International Carillon Festival in Utrecht.  For an overview of concerts, CDs and compositions, see: www.berryvanberkum.nl

Trumpeter Ruben Drenth (1997) manoeuvres his way through catchy, sing-along melodies and abrasive, brutal solos. In his game he is always looking for an honest, sincere sound with a hefty dose of risk.
In 2018 he graduated from the HKU Conservatory and since then he has played with numerous ensembles and projects, including: Amsterdam Sinfonietta, as a guest soloist with the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw, in Dion Nijland’s quintet DEON, Alex Klaassen, Louise Korthals, Egon Kracht and many others.
Under his own name, he released ‘How To Gather Moss’ in 2023: a record based on his love for The Rolling Stones. In 2025, the ‘Bonsaika Suite’ was published, in which he captures the sound world of bonsaists. Later this year he will release a new album, ‘In Our Solitude’: a duo album with Bert van den Brink.

Berry van Berkum  – transeptorgan
Ruben Drenth – trumpet

photo Berry van Berkum ⓒ Steven Kamperman