Organist Benjamin Kolodziej will perform a live soundtrack composed specifically for the moving picture The Kid Brother featuring Harold Lloyd, Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. The music is in a style reminiscent of the 1920s. In this case, Lloyd plays the role of a younger brother who must prove himself to his father. This delightful comedy was hailed by one critic in 1927 as ". . . absorbing, amusing, and a delight every foot of the way." With its many visual delights and rustic setting, this family-friendly comedy has been a favorite of audiences for decades. Benjamin Kolodziej will perform a unique musical score to highlight the on-screen action, just as would have been the practice when the film was released in 1927.

BENJAMIN A KOLODZIEj serves as Chapel Organist at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, where he has been an adjunct lecturer in sacred music at Perkins School of Theology and where he plays organ for 150 weddings, memorials, and civic events a year at historic Perkins Chapel.  Since 1999 he has also been full-time Organist and Director of Worship at Lord of Life Lutheran Church, Plano, TX, where he oversees an active music ministry including several choirs and two concert series.

 Graduating with an undergraduate degree in organ performance from SMU in 1998, Mr Kolodziej holds Master of Sacred Music and Master of Theological Studies degrees from Perkins School of Theology, SMU. His primary teachers have included Richard DeLong, Robert Anderson, Larry Palmer and George Baker, and he has coached for several summers with Jon Gillock in New York City. He won first place in the Dallas AGO Young Organist Competition and was awarded the hymn playing prize at the William B Hall Organ Competition.  He is a frequent organist for hymn festivals and organ concerts, having performed many times in the UK as well as in Germany, Austria, Norway, Italy and Switzerland. In addition to many performances throughout Texas, he has also performed at historic Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg, VA, Washington National Cathedral, St Philip's Cathedral in Atlanta, and St Patrick's Cathedral and St Thomas Church in New York City.  Recent seasons' solo concert venues included St Mary's Cathedral, San Francisco; St Paulo-entro-le-Muro in Rome, Italy; Trinity Church, Copley Square, Boston; St John's Cathedral, Milwaukee; Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Newark, NJ; and St Mary the Virgin, Times Square in New York City. In addition to classical organ performance, he has begun to play many silent movies in recent years, having played and composed original scores to the Buster Keaton (2012) and Harold Lloyd (2014) film festivals at the Allen Performing Arts Center for the City of Allen, TX. He is a member of the American Theatre Organ Society and has performed numerous occasions on the Mighty Wurlitzer organ at the McKinney (TX) Performing Arts Center.  

Mr Kolodziej has published articles in The Chorister, Concordia Theological Quarterly, The Hymn, Concordia Historical Institute Quarterly, The American Organist, Theatre Organ, The Diapason, Methodist History, and the Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology. As a lecturer on topics of church music he has presented to AGO chapters and universities,   maintaining an interest in liturgical, hymnological, and theological history and practices.  In addition to having contributed to the new Lutheran Service Book Hymnal Companion, his chapter entitled "Organ Music in the Liturgy in theTwentieth Century" was published by Routledge in 2011 in Twentieth-Century Organ Music, a Festschrift  honouring Robert T Anderson. His Seven Chorale Preludes for organ are published by Concordia Publishing House and has additional music published by GIA.

Active in the American Guild of Organists, he served as Dean of the Dallas Chapter from 2011-2014.