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Faculty & Staff > Composition > Sheila Silver |
Sheila Silver, Professor;
Composition, Theory and Instrumentation
Ph.D., Brandeis University, 1976
Email Sheila Silver at: Sheilasilver[at]hummingbirdfilms.com
Sheila Silver is an important and vital voice in American music today. She has written in a wide range of mediums: from solo instrumental works to large orchestral works; from opera to feature film scores. Her musical language is a unique synthesis of the tonal and atonal worlds, coupled with a rhythmic complexity which is both masterful and compelling. Again and again, audiences and critics praise her music as powerful and emotionally charged, accessible, and masterfully conceived. "Only a few composers in any generation enliven the art form with their musical language and herald new directions in music. Sheila Silver is such a visionary." (Wetterauer Zeitung, Germany, 2004)Born in Seattle, Washington in 1946, Silver began piano studies at the age of five. Ms. Silver earned her Bachelor of Arts from the University of California at Berkeley in 1968 where she began composition studies with Edwin Dugger. Upon graduation she was awarded the coveted George Ladd Prix de Paris for two years study in Europe where she worked with Erhard Karkoschka in Stuttgart and Gyorgy Ligeti in Berlin and Hamburg. She earned her doctorate from Brandeis University where she studied with Arthur Berger, Harold Shapero, and Seymour Shifrin. Her studies also included an Abraham Sachar Traveling Grant which enabled her to spend 18 months in London and a Koussevitzky Fellowship for a summer at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood where she studied with Jacob Druckman.
Sheila Silver's compositions have been commissioned and performed by numerous orchestras, chamber ensembles, and soloists throughout the United States and Europe including: the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, the RAI Orchestra of Rome, the American Composers Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Stockton Sympony, the Chicago String Ensemble, the Richmond Symphony, the Illinois Symphony, the Gregg Smith Singers, the Hartford Chamber Orchestra, Alexander Paley, Gilbert Kalish, Timothy Eddy, the Guild Trio, Heidi Lehwalder and the Muir Quartet, and the Ying Quartet.
Her honors include: a Bunting Institute Fellowship; the Rome Prize; the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Composer Award; twice winner of the ISCM National Composers Competition; and awards and commissions from the Rockefeller Foundation (Bellagio Residency), the Camargo Foundation, the MacDowell Colony, New York State Council of the Arts, the Barlow Foundation, the Paul Fromm Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Cary Trust.
Her opera, The Thief of Love, A Lyric-Comic Opera in Three Acts, was featured in New York City Opera’s Showcasing American Composers, May 2000 and received its fully staged world premiere in March 2001 by the Stony Brook Opera with David Lawton, conductor, Ned Canty, director, and sets by Phillip Baldwin. A film of that production will be released shortly by Hummingbird Films.
Recent recordings, both on the Naxos label, include her Piano Concerto and Six Preludes for Piano on poems of Baudelaire, with Alexander Paley, piano, and the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra, Gintaras Rinkevicius, conductor; and her Shirat Sara (Song of Sarah) with Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony Strings.
Midnight Prayer, commissioned and premiered last season by the Stockton Symphony Orchestra, received its second performance this March 2005 by the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. “Silver describes her work as a “prayer for world peace,” but it is no quiet, passive meditation. Rather, it is a remarkable 12 minute tone poem that conveys a sense of urgency through its ingenious use of harmonic tension and orchestral color.” (Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester)
Silver composed the sound track to Who the Hell is Bobby Roos?, a feature film which was awarded the New American Cinema Award at the Seattle International Film Festival, 2002 and is currently available on DVD.
Sheila Silver lives in Spencertown, New York, with her husband, film writer and director, John Feldman, and their 6 year old son, Victor Feldman. Silver is Professor of Music at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. Her music is published by MMB Music, Studio 4 Productions, and Argenta Music, and is recorded on various labels.
(Also see her website: http://www.hummingbirdfilms.com/sheilasilver)
More Information | Projects in the Works | Reviews
Interests:
Composition
Analysis
Recent Works:
Three Preludes for Orchestra (1993), commissioned and premiered by the American Composers' Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, New York, March 1993.
To The Spirit Unconquered (1992), for violin, cello, and piano commissioned through Chamber Music America by the Guild Trio.
Six Preludes for Piano, on poems of Baudelaire (1991). Commissioned by the Huntington Heckscher Museum for their art exhibit, Baudelaire: The Poet and his Painters, October, 1994. Performed by Gilbert Kalish.
Dance Converging (1987), for viola, horn, piano and percussion.
Dynamis, for Solo Horn (1979).
Noteworthy Performances:
Three Preludes For Orchestra as part of the 18th Annual New Music and Arts Festival, Bowling Green State University, Ohio, October 18, 1997
Etudes For String Quartet, Ying Quartet, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, November 7, 1997
Premieres:
Piano Concerto for pianist Alexander Paley. (A Barlow Foundation consortium commission by the American Composers Orchestra, Illinois Symphony, Richmond Symphony and Annapolis Symphony). Premiere: April 13, 1997, ACO, Carnegie Hall
Etudes For String Quartet commissioned by the Ying String Quartet, with funding from the Eastman School of Music, Stanford Lively Arts/Stanford University, Krannert Center/University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, San Francisco Performances and the Lied Center/University of Kansas. Premiere at Eastman, March, 1997
Recent Projects of Note:
March, 1996, release on CRI of an all Silver compact disk. Works recorded include: To The Spirit Unconquered, for piano trio, performed by the Guild Trio; Six Preludes For Piano, on poems of Baudelaire, performed by Gilbert Kalish; Dance Converging, for viola, horn, piano and percussion, performed by Lois Martin, William Purvis, Lisa Moore and Thad Wheeler; and Dynamis for solo horn, performed by William Purvis. This recording was made possible, in part, through a generous 1995 grant from the Cary Trust. (CRI CD #708, distributed by Koch International).
World premiere by the Muir String Quartet and guest artist Heidi Lehwalder, From Darkness Emerging for harp and string quartet, funded by a 1995 composers award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Premiere was October, 1995, at the Gardner Museum in Boston and in Providence, RI, followed by performances at The Kennedy Center in Wash. D.C. and Seattle's Meany Hall.
Four week composer-in-residence stay at the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Study and Conference Center, Italy (July-Aug. 1995)
Premiere of Transcending, Three Songs for Michael Dash, in memoriam, for baritone and piano, Weill Recital Hall, June, 1995
Score for the feature film Dead Funny, including the title song, Playing with Knives, recorded by New Orleans jazz singer, Leigh Harris (Little Queenie). Theatrical release date Aug. 1995. Video release date: October, 1995
Sheila Silver is working on an exciting collaboration with filmmaker John Feldman. The first set of three "Musicvisions" is almost completed. Designed to be performed live with video projection, the first three are soloistic vehicles for wind instruments and piano or tape and video. Conceived as an expansion of the live concert experience, the video element is "another" instrument" -- lyrical, evocative, and composed with the music. Sheila and John hope to eventually release a series of these on DVD. The first, SUNSET SUBWAY, is for a solo wind -- oboe, bassoon, clarinet, or saxophone -- and piano, and video. The second, LULLABY, is for a solo instrument -- bassoon, baritone sax, bass clarinet, or viola -- and piano and video, and the third, AS THE EARTH TURNS is for two solo winds -- oboe/bassoon; clarinet/bass clarinet; or soprano sax/baritone sax and tape and video.
AS THE EARTH TURNS was successfully premiered in October, 1999 in New York City. It will be soon available on video/DVD performed by virtuoso clarinetist/bass clarinetist Michael Lowenstern.
SUBWAY SUNSET --a MusicVision for saxophone, piano, and video - will be premiered at Stony Brook's "Singing the Body Electric: Music, Multimedia and Digital Technology," a Humanities Institute conference, March 2000 as well as at the New York Documentary Film Festival, BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music), September 2000.
THE THIEF OF LOVE, a Lyric Comic Opera in Three Acts, (set in ancient India about a women who can't find a man who is smart enough for her, ) has been selected to be featured in New York City Opera's SHOWCASING AMERICAN COMPOSERS series. Approximately one hour of music will be presented with full orchestra -- the first week of May 2000. New York State Theater, Lincoln Center.
CHANT -- for bass and piano, currently a work in progress and eventually to be part of a larger Suite written for a consortium of 4 nationally known bass players, will be premiered by Deborah Dunham on February 6, 2000 at the New England Conservatory of Music Faculty Series in Boston. Each bassist will request a certain kind of piece from Silver which suits their musical personality. Each piece will be 4-6 minutes and each of the bassists will play all of the pieces as a Suite. Deborah Dunham requested a piece with Jewish or Greek chant in it -- one of Sheila's specialties
DANCE OF WILD ANGELS -- for chamber orchestra was performed by The Women's Philharmonic, Herbst Theater, San Francisco, October 1999 and Sheila continued her collaboration with the Women's Philharmonic by participating in their NYC conference on Women Composers in November. Sheila participated as a composer of independent feature films and presented part of the score from DEAD FUNNY.
The Milken Archive for Jewish Music recently recorded SHIRAT SARAH (The Song of Sarah) with Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony. It will be released shortly.
Silver is developing a new opera, THE DRESSMAKER'S MISTRESSES, based on an original screenplay by John Feldman. A twist on the Don Juan model, it is a bedroom farce in the spirit of Beaumarchais and is about a dressmaker at the turn of the 19th century who falls in love with 5 women and they each get from him what they want. Stephen Kitsakos, theater composer, director, and lyricist will write the lyrics.
This season will see the completion of John Feldman's third feature film -- this time shot and edited on digital video in collaboration with Roger Kabler entitled, "Who the Hell is Bobby Roos?" Silver will write and record the film score.
A recording of the PIANO CONCERTO is in the works. Musicians Accord is currently fund raising for this project which will be recorded by Alexander Paley (for whom the piece was written and who premiered it at Carnegie Hall) with Maestro Gintaras Rinkevicius, conductor, and his Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra. New World Records will release the recording.
Silver's trio, TO THE SPIRIT UNCONQUERED, which received over 50 performances nationally and internationally by the Guild Trio to rave reviews several seasons ago, will be heard again this Spring, both at the United States Memorial Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. (March 26, 2000) and on the series, "Music and the Jewish Spirit" at the 92nd Street Y in New York City (May 2, 2000) sponsored by the Bronfman Center for Jewish Living. If you've never heard it live, try to attend -- it is an experience not to be missed.
"Sheila Silver is a creative dynamo. Her music is vital, with a conviction that obliterates fashion and speaks its own language."
The American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters
"To the Spirit Unconquered proved to be a stunning modern masterpiece, a work of profound musical and emotional depth.... It is one of those rare compositions that grabs you emotionally and will not let go. Silver's manipulation of her musical material is masterful."
Journal American, Bellevue/Seattle,Washington
(Piano Concerto) The audience liked what it heard, calling composer, soloist and conductor back for several bows.... This is a modern work, but is not extremely dissonant. It is, however, almost savage at times, reminding one of Prokofiev gone wild. Lovely, lyric moments are offset by stormy passages that utilize the entire orchestra.. ...chances are it could enter the standard repertory and stay there for a long time."
Richmond Times Dispatch
Paley played like a man possesed.....there were shouts and cheers from the audience.... .
New York Times
"Her style is clear, accessible and non-tonal. And she knows how to write a great tune.....From Darkness Emerging is a fine piece by a master composer. It should be heard often."
Susan Larsen, Boston Globe
"The work is a major contribution to chamber music, not only because of its unusual scoring but more importantly because of the music itself... In fact, the notes and phrases that comprise "Darkness Emerging" are compelling: often intense, often lyrical in a dreamy kind of way, but always full of genuine inspiration."
R. M. Campbell, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
"The middle movement (of From Darkness Emerging) was pure enchantment, with little strands of music spinning off from the main body of sound like so many horses on a wayward carousel."
Washington Post
"Most important, "Spirit" is accessible unlike much modern music. There's a rhyme and reason to it, a sense of direction. ....To say the least, "Spirit" is poignant, to say the most, remarkable."
Virgina Gazette, Williamsburg
"....it (Sonata for Cello and Piano) is certainly one of the most immediately attractive string works I have heard from the second half of this century."
David Denton, The Strad
"Sheila Silver offers in "The Song of Sarah" a remarkably evocative score based on the Bible.... It really touches both the mind and the heart."
Robert Marsh, Chicago Sun Times
Sheila Silver's Canto matches Pound's text with music of a comparably audacious directness, simplicity, and specificity and therefore boldly occupies a psycho-spiritual region that few other composers have cared to approach; it is a beautiful work."
Richard Dyer, The Boston Globe
"The message of Sappho in Sheila Silver's Chariessa is submerged in an expressionistic atmosphere of struggle and tenderness. ...The incandescent chromaticism of the score by Silver is contained and controlled within highly calculated limits and sustained through a highly expert instrumentaion. We would like to hear more of this musician."