Naxos has released the second of a three-CD recording project about the music and silent films. Paul Phillips, director of orchestras and chamber music, conducts the Ireland RTE National Symphony Orchestra in music of the American composer William Perry.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — A new CD of silent film music conducted by Paul Phillips, director of orchestras and chamber music and senior lecturer in music, has been released this month by Naxos. Music of Great Films in the Silent Era, Volume 2, is the second in a three-volume series featuring music by the American composer William Perry. Recorded in Dublin in 2014 with the Ireland RTE National Symphony Orchestra, the album includes a "Silent Film Heroines" song-suite for mezzo-soprano and orchestra that celebrates eight of the legendary actresses of the silent cinema, including Greta Garbo and Gloria Swanson, and music from well-known movies like Pollyanna, Peter Pan and 7th Heaven.

In October 2013, the Brown University Orchestra under Phillips’ direction performed the world premiere of one of the works on the new recording, “Brass from the Past: Concerto for Ophicleide and Orchestra.” Soloist Nick Byrne of Sydney, Australia, who plays on the CD, also performed the premiere at Brown.

Phillips conducted the first volume in the album series, which was recorded in 2010 in Dublin with the same orchestra. A third CD in this series is scheduled to be recorded in Dublin in 2017.