Sheila Silver

Sheila Silver (* 1946 in Seattle , Washington ) is an American composer and music teacher.

Silver received piano lessons from the age of five. She studied composition with Edwin Dugger at the University of California, Berkeley until 1968 . During a two-year study visit to Europe, she was a student of Erhard Karkoschka in Stuttgart and György Ligeti in Hamburg and Berlin. She then studied at Brandeis University with Arthur Berger , Harold Shapero and Seymour Shifrin . An Abraham Sachar Traveling Grant enabled her to spend a year and a half in London, and she also attended a summer course with Jacob Druckman at the Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood. She lives in New York with her husband, screenwriter and director John Feldman , and is a professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook .

Silver composed operas and film scores, orchestral works, vocal and chamber music. She has received composition commissions from the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra , the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI , the American Composers Orchestra , the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra , the Chicago String Ensemble , the Richmond and Illinois Symphony , the Gregg Smith Singers , the Hartford Chamber Orchestra , the Guild Trio , the Muir Quartet , the Ying Quartet and the musicians Alexander Paley , Gilbert Kalish , Heidi Lehwalder and Timothy Eddy . She has received a Radcliffe Institute Fellowship (1978), the Rome Prize (1979), and the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Composer Award (1986).

Her piano concerto was premiered in 1997 in Carnegie Hall by the Lithuanian State Orchestra under the direction of Gintaras Rinkevičius and the soloists Alexander Paley, her opera The Thief of Love in 2001 at the Stony Brook Opera under the direction of David Lawton and Ned Canty . She composed the music for the film Who the Hell is Bobby Roos? , which won the New American Cinema Award at the 2002 Seattle International Film Festival .

Works

String Quartet , 1975

Galixidi for orchestra, 1976

Chariessa for soprano and orchestra (after fragments by Sappho ), 1980

Fantasy Quasi Theme and Variations for piano, 1980

Theme an Variations for Bowed Vibraphone , 1980

Two Elizabethan Songs for mixed choir a cappella, 1981

Ek Ong Kar for mixed choir a cappella, 1981

The Thief of Love , Opera, 1981-86

Shirat Sarah for string orchestra, 1985, 1987

Dance Converging for viola, horn, piano and percussion, 1987

G Whiz for two violins and marimba, 1988

Sonata for Cello an Piano , 1988

Windows Waltz for chamber ensemble, 1988

Canto (after Ezra Pounds Canto XXXIX ) for baritone and instrumental ensemble, 1989

Oh Thou Beautiful One for piano, 1989

Dance of Wild Angels for chamber orchestra, 1990

Boruchi Nafshi Et Adonai for antiphon choir and piano, 1990

Six Preludes pou Piano d'après poèmes de Baudelaire , 1991

Three Preludes for Orchestra , 1992

To the Spirit Unconquered for violin, cello and piano, 1992

From Darkness Emerging for two violins, viola, cello and harp, 1995

Transcending for baritone and piano, 1995

Piano Concerto , 1996

String Quartet # 2 , 1997

Winter Tapestry for chamber ensemble, 1998

Lullaby for bassoon and piano, 1999

As the Earth Turns for two wind instruments, tape and video, 1999

Subway Sunset for oboe, piano and video, 2000

Chant for double bass and piano, 2000, 2004

Fantasy on an Imaginary Folk Song for flute and string orchestra, 2002

From Darneslute and string orchestra , 2002

Moon Prayer for two violins, two violas and two cellos, 2002

Midnight Prayer for orchestra, 2003

Twilight's Last Gleaming for two pianos and two percussionists, 2008

Hazim's Dance for oboe, harp, violin, viola and cello, 2008

Six Beads on a String for violin, 2008

The Wooden Sword , Opera, 2007, WP 2010

The White Rooster , Cantata, WP 2010

Web link

Sheila Silver's homepage

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personal data
SURNAME	Silver, Sheila
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Silver, Sheila Jane (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American composer and music teacher
DATE OF BIRTH	1946
PLACE OF BIRTH	Seattle