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about composer ADAM SILVERMAN

ADAM SILVERMAN (born 1973) is a composer whose works have been commissioned and performed by The New York City Opera, Eighth Blackbird, The Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, The Brooklyn Symphony, The Albany Symphony Chamber Orchestra, The Amelia Piano Trio, The Corigliano Quartet, The Flux Quartet, Prism Saxophone Quartet, Relâche, Opera Company of Brooklyn, Real Time Opera, The Yale Philharmonic, and others. His works have been performed at venues including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, The Library of Congress, The Metropolitan Museum, La Jolla Chamber Music Society, and The Spoleto Festival.

Silverman’s works include classical concert works (the piano trio “Sturm” and three string quartets), rock-based music for live performers and electronics (“Strawberry Fields Continued” for percussion, cellos, and recording), opera (“Korczak’s Orphans”), conceptual music-theater (“Telemusic” for phones and percussion and “The Mostly True Story of Professor Leon and Me”) and educational music as composer-in-residence for The Commission Project.

Silverman’s music often incorporates theatrical elements, and his opera “Korczak’s Orphans” was featured in a showcase by the New York City Opera, performed by their orchestra and soloists under the baton of NYCO’s Music Director George Manahan. Another work, “In Another Man’s Skin,” was performed dozens of times across the country throughout 2001-2003 by Eighth Blackbird, who memorized and staged the work with choreography that accentuated musical elements. Based on a text from Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, Silverman’s “stars, cars, bars” has been performed recently on tour throughout Australia, and in New York as the closing piece of the “Say What” Festival by Music Journeys, Inc. In 2005, he composed music for inParenthesis Theater’s production of Olivier Cadiot’s “AWOL” (“Le Colonel des Zouaves”), for solo actor and 20-member men’s chorus.

Since 1998, he has directed the Minimum Security Composers Collective, a group of which he is co-founder. Dedicated to the presentation of new music, Minimum Security has worked with over a dozen ensembles in the creation of new music by the four Minimum Security directors and guests, with more than eighty works so far presented by thirty-three composers. With this group, Silverman has created the Minimum Security Ensemble, the “Di/verge” tour, “Maurice Sendak Music,” has participated in outreach events at Centro Musica in Modena, Italy, in Iowa through the Chamber Music America/NEA Rural Music Residencies program, at the Norfolk Music Festival, the Juilliard School, and Northwestern University.

Silverman has received residencies, fellowships and grants from The Tanglewood Music Center (ASCAP-Leonard Bernstein fellowship), Yaddo, MacDowell Colony, American Music Center, The Argosy Foundation, Yvar Mikhashoff Trust for New Music, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Bowdoin Music Festival, The Commission Project, Yale School of Music, and Kunsthalle Krems (Austria).

Silverman studied composition at Yale (Doctor of Musical Arts, 2003), the Vienna Musikhochschule, and the University of Miami School of Music with Martin Bresnick, Anthony Davis, Ben Johnston, Ezra Laderman, Ned Rorem, Kurt Schwertsik, and Evan Ziporyn, and at festivals with Louis Andriessen, Chen Yi, and Osvaldo Golijov. From 2004-2006, he taught music at City University of New York, and currently serves as Assistant Professor of Music Theory and Composition at West Chester University in Pennsylvania.

[Download a longer bio in Word format]

updated July, 2009

UPCOMING CONCERTS:

September 2
The Heart and the Hand
Performed by cellist Amy Sue Barston and pianist Olga Vinokur at Barge Music (Brooklyn, NY)

September 16
Griselda's aria and quartet from
Griselda e il marchese di Saluzzo
Performed by finalists of the Concorso "Magda Olivero" vocal competition (Saluzzo, Italy)

November 12-14
Griselda e il marchese di Saluzzo
Performed by International Opera Theater (Prince Theater, Philadelphia, PA)

[see 2010 concerts]

NEW RECORDINGS


July 2010:
From the CD Florida State University Percussion Ensemble, Vol. 1
Gasoline Rainbow for percussion octet performed by Florida State University Percussion Ensemble (John W. Parks IV, director).



May 2010:
From the CD Amy Sue Barston: Memories and Souvenirs
The Heart and The Hand for cello and piano
Baby Blackbird, Fly Now for cello and piano
There Comes My Heart for cello
I love my love with a v for cello
[hear samples on CD Baby]

DECAMERON OPERA

Adam has been selected by The American Composers Forum's New Voices program to compose an opera "vignette" based The Decameron, a series of 100 novellas by 14th century author Giovanni Boccaccio. It will premiere in November 2010 at Philadelphia's Prince Theater, performed by the International Opera Theater.

CELLO SHEET MUSIC

Due to popular demand, there is now a CELLO MUSIC section in Adam's online store. For music for cello, cello + piano and cello ensemble music (including There Comes My Heart and Baby Blackbird, Fly Now), just visit the online store to order as printable download (PDF) files.

SONGS FOR SOPHIE
Adam's niece Sophie has become the muse for another song. Shiny Teeth, a song to sing while brushing, is available for free download here; pass it along to parents and dentists! What's In Sophie's Diaper?, now a classic in the 0-3 year-old demographic, is still available.

Download for free:
• What's In Sophie's Diaper?
• Shiny Teeth