Stanley Silverman (born July 5, 1938, in New York City) is an American composer, arranger, conductor and guitarist.[1][2]
Silverman's diverse career covers music theatre, film, television, classical and pop music. His work has featured on stages across the world including on and off-Broadway and his collaborators include Richard Foreman, Anthony Burgess[3] and Arthur Miller.[4][5] He has also worked with renowned directors Mike Nichols[6] and Arthur Penn.[7] Silverman worked with Paul Simon on his musical The Capeman in 1998 for which his orchestrations were nominated for Tony and Drama Desk Awards.[8] His music has been performed by Pierre Boulez,[9]Michael Tilson Thomas,[10] Tashi,[11] the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio and pop icons James Taylor and Sting.[12]
Across a successful career as a conductor, Silverman worked on the Tony, Drama Desk and Grammy Award nominated 1976 Joseph Papp production of The Threepenny Opera which starred in the lead role Raul Julia.[13][14]
As a young man Silverman played guitar in a western swing band and developed an interest in jazz music which took him to the Brussels World Fair playing with his college jazz quintet.[16]
Silverman taught at Tanglewood during the 1960s and in 1965 was appointed music director of The Lincoln Center Repertory Theater before joining Canada's Stratford Festival at the invitation of Glenn Gould.[20][21] He worked at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival extensively from 1967 when he composed music for John Hirsch's production of Richard III until 1994.[22] His career at the Festival was celebrated in a one-off concert in 2013 called Celebrating Stanley which covered the diverse range of material he had composed over almost three decades for the Festival.[23] In 1971 Silverman, along with Lyn Austin and Oliver Smith, was a founding member of the Lenox Arts Center, later the Music Theatre Group.[24]
In 1976, Silverman joined Joseph Papp's production of The Threepenny Opera as musical director. The show premiered at the Vivian Beaumont Theater under the direction of Richard Foreman. Of Silverman's musical direction, Alan Rich of New York Magazine said, "This is strong, intelligent music-making, and it clarifies, more than any version I have heard live or on records, the stature of this dazzling score."[27] The production received critical acclaim and went on to earn Tony, Drama Desk and Grammy Award nominations.[13][14]
Aside from his involvement with theatre, Silverman has worked with several musicians as an arranger including a Grammy award-winning collaboration with James Taylor on Hourglass.
In recent years, Silverman has been a specialist consultant for Reveille TV, Electus Studios and NBC music Specials.[16][32]
Silverman was honored by the Lincoln Center Institute for the Arts in Education in 2004, having served for over thirty years as one of its founding board members.
Recent activity
Silverman with Sting
Hotel For Criminals by Richard Foreman and Stanley Silverman had its UK premiere in October 2016 at the New Wimbledon Studio directed by Patrick Kennedy. The show garnered positive reviews from critics, including British Theatre's Critics Choice 2016,[33] in particular for Silverman's score:
"The music is immensely more tuneful and memorable than the great majority of scores currently to be heard in the commercial scene."[34]
"The score is filled with rich vocal harmonies and elegant melodies dappled amongst chromatic recitative and horror film discordance."[35]
"Silverman’s score is a rich combination of haunting, discordant phrases and sumptuous melodies that reflect the other-worldliness of the narrative."[36]
"Stanley Silverman’s score is beautiful, enigmatic and embraces the show’s disjointed narrative with its smooth and impressive melodies."[37]
On 26 February 2017 BBC Radio 3 broadcast Anthony Burgess's Oedipus the King with Silverman's score.[38] It was rebroadcast on 19 May 2019.
On January 12, Sting recorded the vocals for Fear No More composed by Silverman performed by the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson trio.
Collaborations with Richard Foreman
In 1968 Silverman began collaborating with playwright/director Richard Foreman resulting in several works of music-theatre. Their first collaboration was Elephant Steps which premiered at Tanglewood in 1968[39] with the New York Magazine calling it "The best piece of new music I've heard in concert all year."[40] A musical recording of the same name was released on LP by Columbia Records in 1974. "A mere Chuck Berry expert cannot judge the quality of the 'classical' music herein contained, although he can mention that he does not intend to investigate it further", wrote rock critic Robert Christgau in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981). "The 'rock,' however, was apparently concocted by David Clayton-Thomas's heir covert and the pit band from the Oslo production of Hair. And any English major can see through the 'libretto.'"[41]
Other collaborations include Dream Tantras For Western Massachusetts, Hotel For Criminals, Madame Adare, The American Imagination, Africanus Instructus, Love & Science and Dr Selavy's Magic Theatre[42] which led to the New York Times describing Silverman as "the brightest talent in this medium to come along since Leonard Bernstein... he could turn out to be the later day Cole Porter."[43][44]
American Friends of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra to Honor Stanley Silverman.
The Israel Philharmonic will perform a program including works composed by Stanley Silverman.
Late 2019 – ALBUM, In Celebration, Trio No.1 – The Piano Trios of Stanley Silverman
The Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio with Guest Artist Sting
In Celebration, Trio No. 1 is included on Chamber Music America's list of 100 best chamber pieces written by an American.
In 1966, Silverman married former VP of BBC America and theatre and television producer and executive Mary Silverman (née Delson); the couple had one child, Ben, chairman and
co-CEO of Propagate and former NBC co-chairman.[48] With Mary, Silverman also raised artist and illustrator Sarah Delson.[49] In 1980 Silverman married Martha Caplin,[6] a founding member and 1st Violin, Primavera Quartet and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.[50] The couple has one child, Rena, a journalist and photography writer.
Theatre
Music theatre
Elephant Steps
1968: Tanglewood
1970: Hunter Playhouse, New York & Lake George Opera
2018: Arcola Theatre, London
The Satyricon
1969: Stratford Festival, Canada
Dream Tantras for Western Massachusetts
1971: Commemorating the opening of the Lenox Arts Center, Lenox, Massachusetts
Dr. Selavy's Magic Theatre
1972: Lenox Arts Center
1972-73: Mercer Arts Center, New York
1973: Wisdom Bridge Theatre, Chicago
1978: Oxford Playhouse, England
1985: New York Off-Broadway Revival (Music Theatre Group)
1993: Timon of Athens (Nominated - Drama Desk Award)
1994: The Government Inspector
1995: Uncle Vanya
Off-Broadway
1958: The Golden Six
1962: Ten Nights in a Barroom
1983: The Lady and the Clarinet
2007: Fugue
Repertory Theater of Lincoln Center
1965 The Country Wife
1966 Yerma
1967: The Little Foxes & Galileo
1968: St. Joan & Tiger at the Gates
1970: Beggar on Horseback
1971: Mary Stuart
1972: Narrow Road to the Deep North
Stratford Festival, Canada
1967: Richard III
1968: Midsummer Night's Dream
1969: Satyricon
1970: School for Scandal
1981: A Comedy of Errors
1982: The Tempest, Arms and the Man & Mary Stuart
1983: Love's Labour's Lost & Much Ado About Nothing
1985: King Lear
1989: The Merchant of Venice
1991: Timon of Athens
1992: The Tempest & Measure for Measure
1994: Twelfth Night & 2 One-Act Plays by Moliere
Guthrie Theatre. Minneapolis
1971: Taming of the Shrew
1972: Oedipus
1973: School for Scandal
New York Shakespeare Festival
1979: Julius Caesar & Coriolanus
1984: The Golem
1994: The Merry Wives of Windsor
Mark Taper Forum. Los Angeles
1979: The Tempest
Long Wharf Theatre. New Haven
1982: Two by A.M. (Arthur Miller)
1983: The Lady and the Clarinet
Royal Exchange Theatre. Manchester, England
1987: The Bluebird of Unhappiness
Seattle Repertory Theatre
1987: The Caucasian Chalk Circle
Hartford Stage Company
1992: Heartbreak House
Lincoln Center Theatre. New York
1998: Ah, Wilderness!
Royal Shakespeare Company
1999: Timon of Athens (adaptation)
The Berkshire Theatre Festival
1966: The Skin of Our Teeth
1966: The Cretan Women
1966: The Merchant of Venice
Classical compositions
Principal performances
Tenso
1962: White House & Carnegie Hall
1963: Broadcast, Brazil Television and Japanese Television
Canso
1964: Tanglewood (de Varon)
1965: Town Hall, New York
Planh
1966: Festival de Musique Americaine Contemporaine, Radio diffusion Television Francaise, Paris
1968: Monday Evening Concerts, Los Angeles; Tanglewood
1969: Stratford Festival, Canada
1971: New York Philharmonic Encounter Series (Pierre Boulez)
The Midsummer Night's Dream Show
1971: New England Conservatory Chorus, Jordan Hall, Boston
1973: Speculum Musicae, Burgess, Gagnon, Whitney Museum, NY
Oedipus The King (Oratorio)
1973: Speculum Musicae, Burgess, Gagnon at the Whitney Museum, NY
2016: BBC Orchestra and Chorus, BBC Radio 3
Crepuscule
1974: Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
1984: Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
1987: Y Chamber Soloists, New York (Jaime Laredo)
2004: Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
The Charleston Concerto
1976: U.S Bicentennial performances in Charleston and New York
Variations on a Theme of Kurt Weill
1977: Naumburg Award. Performed by Empire Brass Quintet at Tully Hall, Lincoln Center (American Tour 1977–1984)
1978: Brooklyn Philharmonic at the Brooklyn Academy of Music
1982:Empire Brass Quintet at Sanders Theatre, Harvard University
1995: Meridian Brass Quintet (International Tour & Recording)
2018: Israel Philharmonic at the Wallis Annenberg Center, Los Angeles
New York Shakespeare Festival Fanfare
1978: Delacorte Theatre, New York
Chaconne in D minor (Arranged for Brass Quintet)
1982: Empire Brass Quintet at Sanders Theatre, Harvard University
Birthday Variations for Avery Fisher
1986: Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center
Trio No. 1 In Celebration
1989: Performed by Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio at the 92nd Street Y, New York and Krannert Center, Urbana Illinois. (International Tour, 1990–95, American Tour 2000–present).
2001: Ouro Preto & Pocos de Caldas, Brazil, (Musitrio)
2007: Bronfman Chamber Series, Sun Valley, ID
2008: Rio & Porto Alegre, Brazil, (Musitrio), Gewurzmuehle Zug, Switzerland (Ensemble Chameleon)
2013: Maestro Sergio Magnani Hall, Belo Horizonte, Brazil (Musitrio)
Psalm 100
1990: Fairmount Temple, Cleveland, Ohio
Khlestakov's Lullaby
1994: Dayton Philharmonic, Dayton, Ohio
Eridos
1999: European Cultural Centre of Delphi, Greece (Antigoni Goni)
2000: Concertgebouw, Amsterdam,
2001: Royal Academy of Music, London (Antigoni Goni); Carnegie Recital Hall, New York (Antigoni Goni)
2001: Prague, Czech Republic, (Antigoni, Goni)
Shakespeare and Our Planet
2001: Lincoln Center Institute (2 concerts & tour)
2002: (Gala) Walter Reade Theater, Lincoln Center
Trio No.2 Reveille
2011: Performed by Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio with Sting at the 92nd St. Y, New York
2013: Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, Kennedy Center, Washington DC (& U.S. tour)
