Adam Silverman

Adam Benjamin Silverman (born in 1973, Atlanta, GA) is a composer of contemporary classical music. His works include the opera Korczak's Orphans (to a libretto by Susan Gubernat, based on the life of Holocaust martyr from Poland Janusz Korczak), chamber and orchestral music, and music for the theater. With composers Dennis DeSantis, Roshanne Etezady, and Ken Ueno, he founded the Minimum Security Composers Collective.

Biography

Born in 1973 to Mark and Diana (Howard) Silverman, he got an undergraduate degree from the University of Miami. He began his musical career as a rock guitarist and songwriter, and went on to study classical composition at the Vienna Musikhochschule and Yale with composers such as Ned Rorem, Kurt Schwertsik, Ezra Laderman and Martin Bresnick. As a student, he was especially interested in the musical system of microtonal just intonation, and studied closely with composer Ben Johnston. His compositions Durham (Triangle Quartet) (1996, for string quartet) and Just Music Makes Me Lose My Temper (1995, for electric guitar, keyboard, and percussion) are just intonation compositions.

After composing Durham (Triangle Quartet), he turned away from just intonation to compose chromatic tonal music. These works reflect a variety of influences, including a series inspired by Irish dance music (Corrie Q's Jigs and Reels (String Quartet No. 3), McAllister's Ceilidh, and Spark in the Shoe), Beatles songs (In Another Man's Skin, E Uno Plures) and classical music (Nocturnes and Reveries). His most performed compositions are those for percussion ensembles, especially the quartet "Quick Blood."

Since 2006, Silverman has held the position of Professor of Music Theory and Composition at West Chester University of Pennsylvania.

Works

In addition to Korczak's Orphans, his principal compositions include Sturm (2002, for piano trio), three string quartets (1996, 2000, 2005), In Another Man's Skin (2000, for sextet eighth blackbird), Hard Knocks (1999, for orchestra) and stars, cars, bars (1999, for speaking marimbist, based on a passage from Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita"). His works for percussion ensemble "Quick Blood" (2001), "Gasoline Rainbow" (2009), "Naked And On Fire" (2011) and "Sparklefrog" (2014) -- have been played widely at American universities. Since 2011, Silverman has composed concertos for alto saxophone and wind ensemble ("Alternating Current"), marimba and wind ensemble ("Carbon Paper and Nitrogen Ink"), and a double concerto for violin, cello and orchestra ("The Hedgehog's Dilemma").

Recordings

External links


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