Faye-Ellen Silverman
Encyclopedia
Faye-Ellen Silverman (born October 2, 1947 in New York, New York) is an American composer of contemporary classical music
. She is also an author and an educator.
, leading to her performing her winning composition in Carnegie Hall, and to an appearance on the Sonny Fox TV show Wonderama. She studied piano, clarinet, and some viola, and participated in school bands, orchestras, and choirs. After twelve years at Dalcroze, she then spent a year in the Preparatory Division of the Manhattan School of Music
before leaving for college at the end of her junior year of high school.
She attended Barnard College
, where she studied composition with Otto Luening
and took a class in twentieth century music with Henry Cowell
. She graduated cum laude and with honors in music after spending her junior year at the Mannes College of Music, where she studied composition with William Sydeman. She went on to get her AM in music composition at Harvard (studying composition with Leon Kirchner and Lukas Foss, counterpoint with David del Tredici, analysis with Earl Kim, and 20th century techniques with Donald Martino and Harold Shapiro.) While living in Cambridge, she continued her private piano studies with Russell Sherman
. She then returned to Columbia University for her DMA, where she studied composition and electronic music with Vladimir Ussachevsky
, composition with Jack Beeson
, and twentieth century techniques with Chou Wen-chung
.
In the summer of 2004 Silverman participated in the Center for World Music’s workshop held in Bali.
In addition to memberships in ASCAP, CMS, IAWM, and NYWC, she is a Founding Board Member of the International Women's Brass Conference (for which she has served as composer-in-residence), a founding member of Music Under Construction, a composers’ collective, and a founding member of the International Women’s Review Board (ABI),
Silverman's music has won many awards. These include the selection of her Oboe-sthenics to represent the United States at the International Rostrum of Composers
/UNESCO, resulting in international radio broadcasts (1982); winning the Indiana State [Orchestral] Composition Contest, resulting in a performance by the Indianapolis Symphony (1982); a Governor's Citation (1982); and having September 30, 1982 named Faye-Ellen Silverman Day in Baltimore by Mayor Donald Schaeffer. Additionally, she has been the recipient of the National League of American Pen Women’s biennial music award (2002), yearly Standard Awards from ASCAP (now known as ASCAPlus) since 1983, several Meet the Composer grants, and an American Music Center grant. She has been a fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (2007), a resident scholar at the Villa Serbelloni of the Rockefeller Foundation (1987), a Composers' Conference Fellow (1985), a Yaddo Fellow (1984), and a MacDowell Fellow (1982).
The Baltimore Symphony, the Brooklyn Philharmonic
, the Greater Bridgeport Symphony, the New Orleans Philharmonic, the International Experimental Music Festival in Bourges, ISCM - Korea section, Nieuwe Oogst (Belgium), Grupo Musica Hoje (Brazil), the Corona Guitar Quartet (Denmark), the Monday Evening Concert series (L.A.), and the Aspen Music Festival are among the groups that have performed Dr. Silverman’s works. She has received commissions from the Edinboro University Chamber Players, Seraphim, Philip A. De Simone (in memory of Linda J. Warren), Larry Madison, Thomas Matta, the International Women’s Brass Conference, the Monarch Brass Quintet, the Sylvia and Danny Kaye Playhouse, the Great Lakes Performing Artist Associates, the Con Spirito woodwind quintet, the Greater Lansing Symphony Orchestra, the Fromm Music Foundation, the Chamber Music Society of Baltimore, and a joint commission from the American Brass Quintet, the Catskill Brass Quintet, the Mt. Vernon Brass Players, and the Southern Brass quintet (under the National Endowment for the Arts Consortium Commissioning Program). She has also created pieces to fill less formal commissions, including a work for flutist Nina Assimakopoulos’s Laurels Project and one for guitarist Volkmar Zimmermann’s choir plus guitar project.
. She served as adjunct faculty at various branches of the City University of New York
before taking her first full-time teaching position at Goucher College
(1977-1980) where she taught music theory and other courses. She also taught for several years at the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University
, specializing mainly in 20th century music history at the graduate level; at the Center for Graduate Studies of the Aspen Music Festival; and at the school of the Alvin Ailey
American Dance Center.
Since 1991 she has been on the music history faculty of Mannes College The New School for Music. She joined Mannes College The New School for Music’s Extension Division faculty in 1995, where she teaches music history electives as well as ear training and dictation. In 2000, she also began teaching at The Eugene Lang College, The New School for Liberal Arts, where she currently offers courses in music theatre. She has also given many lectures as a guest composer and as a composer-in-residence. In 2009 these included a residency at Edinboro University in Pennsylvania, and lectures in Lithuania, sponsored by the State Department of the United States.
NOTE: In addition to these articles, Silverman wrote the 20th-century section of: Leonie Rosenstiel (gen. ed.), The Schirmer History of Music. New York: Schirmer Books, 1982.
Contemporary classical music
Contemporary classical music can be understood as belonging to the period that started in the mid-1970s with the retreat of modernism. However, the term may also be employed in a broader sense to refer to all post-1945 modern musical forms.-Categorization:...
. She is also an author and an educator.
Life and education
Silverman began studying music at the Dalcroze School of Music shortly before her fourth birthday. At thirteen she won the Parents’ League Competition, judged by Leopold StokowskiLeopold Stokowski
Leopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born, naturalised American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted.In America, Stokowski...
, leading to her performing her winning composition in Carnegie Hall, and to an appearance on the Sonny Fox TV show Wonderama. She studied piano, clarinet, and some viola, and participated in school bands, orchestras, and choirs. After twelve years at Dalcroze, she then spent a year in the Preparatory Division of the Manhattan School of Music
Manhattan School of Music
The Manhattan School of Music is a major music conservatory located on the Upper West Side of New York City. The school offers degrees on the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition...
before leaving for college at the end of her junior year of high school.
She attended Barnard College
Barnard College
Barnard College is a private women's liberal arts college and a member of the Seven Sisters. Founded in 1889, Barnard has been affiliated with Columbia University since 1900. The campus stretches along Broadway between 116th and 120th Streets in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough...
, where she studied composition with Otto Luening
Otto Luening
Otto Clarence Luening was a German-American composer and conductor, and an early pioneer of tape music and electronic music....
and took a class in twentieth century music with Henry Cowell
Henry Cowell
Henry Cowell was an American composer, music theorist, pianist, teacher, publisher, and impresario. His contribution to the world of music was summed up by Virgil Thomson, writing in the early 1950s:...
. She graduated cum laude and with honors in music after spending her junior year at the Mannes College of Music, where she studied composition with William Sydeman. She went on to get her AM in music composition at Harvard (studying composition with Leon Kirchner and Lukas Foss, counterpoint with David del Tredici, analysis with Earl Kim, and 20th century techniques with Donald Martino and Harold Shapiro.) While living in Cambridge, she continued her private piano studies with Russell Sherman
Russell Sherman
Russell Sherman is an American classical pianist, educator and author.Russell Sherman made his debut at The Town Hall in New York at age 15; later studying piano with Edward Steuermann and composition with Erich Itor Kahn...
. She then returned to Columbia University for her DMA, where she studied composition and electronic music with Vladimir Ussachevsky
Vladimir Ussachevsky
Vladimir Kirilovitch Ussachevsky was a composer, particularly known for his work in electronic music.-Biography:...
, composition with Jack Beeson
Jack Beeson
Jack Beeson was an American composer. He was known particularly for his operas, the best known of which are Lizzie Borden, Hello Out There! and The Sweet Bye and Bye.-Biography:...
, and twentieth century techniques with Chou Wen-chung
Chou Wen-chung
Chou Wen-chung , Shandong, China) is a Chinese American composer of contemporary classical music. He emigrated in 1946 to the United States where he lives.-Life:...
.
In the summer of 2004 Silverman participated in the Center for World Music’s workshop held in Bali.
In addition to memberships in ASCAP, CMS, IAWM, and NYWC, she is a Founding Board Member of the International Women's Brass Conference (for which she has served as composer-in-residence), a founding member of Music Under Construction, a composers’ collective, and a founding member of the International Women’s Review Board (ABI),
Composing
Silverman became a published composer in her mid-twenties when Seesaw Music Corporation accepted Three Movements for Saxophone Alone. She became a member of ASCAP that same year. Seesaw Music published all of her subsequent compositions until the death of its owner, Raoul Ronson. Subito Music Corporation acquired the catalogue of Seesaw Music in 2006. Seesaw, a division of Subito Music Corporation, has continued to publish Silverman’s works.Silverman's music has won many awards. These include the selection of her Oboe-sthenics to represent the United States at the International Rostrum of Composers
International Rostrum of Composers
The International Rostrum of Composers is an annual forum organized by the International Music Council that offers broadcasting representatives the opportunity to exchange and publicize pieces of contemporary classical music...
/UNESCO, resulting in international radio broadcasts (1982); winning the Indiana State [Orchestral] Composition Contest, resulting in a performance by the Indianapolis Symphony (1982); a Governor's Citation (1982); and having September 30, 1982 named Faye-Ellen Silverman Day in Baltimore by Mayor Donald Schaeffer. Additionally, she has been the recipient of the National League of American Pen Women’s biennial music award (2002), yearly Standard Awards from ASCAP (now known as ASCAPlus) since 1983, several Meet the Composer grants, and an American Music Center grant. She has been a fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (2007), a resident scholar at the Villa Serbelloni of the Rockefeller Foundation (1987), a Composers' Conference Fellow (1985), a Yaddo Fellow (1984), and a MacDowell Fellow (1982).
The Baltimore Symphony, the Brooklyn Philharmonic
Brooklyn Philharmonic
The Brooklyn Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, commonly known as the Brooklyn Philharmonic, is an American orchestra based in the borough of Brooklyn, in New York City...
, the Greater Bridgeport Symphony, the New Orleans Philharmonic, the International Experimental Music Festival in Bourges, ISCM - Korea section, Nieuwe Oogst (Belgium), Grupo Musica Hoje (Brazil), the Corona Guitar Quartet (Denmark), the Monday Evening Concert series (L.A.), and the Aspen Music Festival are among the groups that have performed Dr. Silverman’s works. She has received commissions from the Edinboro University Chamber Players, Seraphim, Philip A. De Simone (in memory of Linda J. Warren), Larry Madison, Thomas Matta, the International Women’s Brass Conference, the Monarch Brass Quintet, the Sylvia and Danny Kaye Playhouse, the Great Lakes Performing Artist Associates, the Con Spirito woodwind quintet, the Greater Lansing Symphony Orchestra, the Fromm Music Foundation, the Chamber Music Society of Baltimore, and a joint commission from the American Brass Quintet, the Catskill Brass Quintet, the Mt. Vernon Brass Players, and the Southern Brass quintet (under the National Endowment for the Arts Consortium Commissioning Program). She has also created pieces to fill less formal commissions, including a work for flutist Nina Assimakopoulos’s Laurels Project and one for guitarist Volkmar Zimmermann’s choir plus guitar project.
Teaching
Silverman accepted her first teaching job at the Rochdale Village Community Music Center, teaching children piano, during her senior year of college. After several community music school jobs (teaching piano and theory), private teaching (piano and clarinet) and classes involving movement and music, Silverman began her college teaching career as a Teaching Assistant at Columbia UniversityColumbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
. She served as adjunct faculty at various branches of the City University of New York
City University of New York
The City University of New York is the public university system of New York City, with its administrative offices in Yorkville in Manhattan. It is the largest urban university in the United States, consisting of 23 institutions: 11 senior colleges, six community colleges, the William E...
before taking her first full-time teaching position at Goucher College
Goucher College
Goucher College is a private, co-educational, liberal arts college located in the northern Baltimore suburb of Towson in unincorporated Baltimore County, Maryland, on a 287 acre campus. The school has approximately 1,475 undergraduate students studying in 31 majors and six interdisciplinary...
(1977-1980) where she taught music theory and other courses. She also taught for several years at the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
, specializing mainly in 20th century music history at the graduate level; at the Center for Graduate Studies of the Aspen Music Festival; and at the school of the Alvin Ailey
Alvin Ailey
Alvin Ailey, Jr. was an American choreographer and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York. Ailey is credited with popularizing modern dance and revolutionizing African-American participation in 20th century concert dance...
American Dance Center.
Since 1991 she has been on the music history faculty of Mannes College The New School for Music. She joined Mannes College The New School for Music’s Extension Division faculty in 1995, where she teaches music history electives as well as ear training and dictation. In 2000, she also began teaching at The Eugene Lang College, The New School for Liberal Arts, where she currently offers courses in music theatre. She has also given many lectures as a guest composer and as a composer-in-residence. In 2009 these included a residency at Edinboro University in Pennsylvania, and lectures in Lithuania, sponsored by the State Department of the United States.
Performing
Silverman originally studied piano because she was told that composers need to be pianists, and reached a professional level that enabled her to record for Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR), the German public broadcasting institution based in Cologne. Additionally, she has performed at the International Festival of Experimental Music in Bourges, France; the Library of Congress in Washington, DC; and as soloist with the Brooklyn Philharmonic in New York City. She also provides accompaniment to both singers and instrumentalists.Musical style
Silverman concerns herself with the timbral possibilities of instruments, and works with performers learning from their feedback. While many of her works incorporate virtuosity, she generally writes music that is playable, and that players enjoy sharing with audiences. She employs structure to fit the materials of each piece, as in her use of consonant melody in deliberate contrast with dissonance in the orchestral work "Adhesions". Silverman's formative years were steeped in an environment of ethnic Jewish songs and dances, and this rich heritage is reflected in works like her early opera, “The Miracle of Nemirov”, based on a story by Peretz, and a more recent piece for horn and marimba, “Protected Sleep", written for horn player David Jolley.Selected writings
- "Beethoven Today Would Be Exploring New Forms" Guest Comment. The Evening Sun February 28, 1983)
- "Commissioning a Musical Composition." International Women's Brass Conference Newsletter vol. 1, no. 5 (1994):
- "Gesualdo: Misguided or Inspired?" Current Musicology no. 16 (1973):
- “Otto Luening at 96” The Sonneck Society for American Music Bulletin Vol. XXII, No. 2 Summer 1996: Cover Story
- Record reviews for The Baltimore Sun - Sunday Arts and Entertainment section (1985)
- "Report from New York City: Computer Conference, June 1973." Current Musicology no. 17 (1974):
- "The Gregg Smith Singers." The Goucher Quarterly no. 2 (1978)
NOTE: In addition to these articles, Silverman wrote the 20th-century section of: Leonie Rosenstiel (gen. ed.), The Schirmer History of Music. New York: Schirmer Books, 1982.
Opera
- The Miracle of Nemirov, opera in 1 act (1974); libretto by the composer based on a short story by I. L. Peretz.
Orchestra
- Adhesions for orchestra (1987)
- Candlelight for piano and orchestra (1988)
- Just For Fun for chamber orchestra (1994)
- Madness for narrator and chamber orchestra (1972)
- Stirrings for chamber orchestra (1979)
- Winds and Sines for orchestra (1981)
Large chamber ensemble
- Bridges in Time for tpt, perc, 4 vln, 2 vla, 2 vc, cb (1986)
- No Strings for fl/picc, ob, bcl, bn, alto sax, hn, tpt, tb, tuba, and 1 perc (1982)
- Passing Fancies for picc/fl, ob, cl/bcl, bn, hn, tpt, tb, perc, 2 vln, vla, vc, cb (1985)
- Shadings for fl, ob, alto sax, bn, hn, tuba, 2 perc, vln, vla, cb (1978)
Brass
- Alternating Currents for bass trombone and piano (2002)
- At the Colour Café for brass choir (4 C tpts, 4 hns, 2 tb, bass tb, tuba, perc) (1997)
- Dialogue for horn and tuba (1976)
- Dialogue Continued for horn, trombone and tuba (2000)
- Double Threat for two trumpets (2002)
- First Position for trombone and marimba (1992)
- From Sorrow for trumpet, horn and bass trombone (2001)
- Kalends for brass quintet (1981)
- Meetings for 2 euphoniums and 2 tubas (2003)
- Protected Sleep for horn and marimba (2006)
- Quantum Quintet for brass quintet (1982)
- Triple Threat for 3 trumpets (2001)
- Trysts for 2 trumpets (1982)
- Zigzags for tuba (1988)
Woodwinds
- Conversations for alto flute and clarinet (1975)
- Layered Lament for English horn and electronic tape (1983); Tape realized at the University of Utah Electronic Music Studio.
- Oboe–sthenics for oboe (1980)
- On Four for electronic valve instrument, oboe/English horn, and piano 4 hands (1983)
- Restless Winds for woodwind quintet (1986)
- Speaking Alone for flute (1976)
- Taming the Furies for solo flute (2003)
- Three Movements for Saxophone Alone for soprano saxophone (1971)
- Windscape for woodwind quintet (1977)
- Xenium for flute and piano (1992)
Strings
- Let's Play for string quartet (2007)
- Azure Skies for violin, cello and harp (1993)
- Duplex Variations violin and piano (1995)
- Memories for viola (1974)
- Obsessions for cello and piano (1999)
- Paula’s Song for string quartet (1996)
- Reconstructed Music for violin, cello and piano (2002)
- Speaking Together for violin and piano (1981)
- String Quartet (Untitled) (1976)
- Translations for violin and cello (2004)
- Trial Balance for double bass (1999 )
- Volcanic Songs for harp (1983)
Chamber music
- Connections for clarinet, cello and marimba (1994)
- For Him for flute, cello and vibraphone (1975)
- Hollowed Refrains for oboe, violin and piano (1987)
- Troubled Repose for flute, viola and double bass (1998)
- Unquiet Dreams for clarinet, violin and piano (1992)
- Yet for Him for flute, cello and piano (1980)
Piano
- Gliffs for piano (1984); Influenced by the dance techniques of Pina Bausch.
- Settings for piano (1978)
- Two Bagatelles for piano
-
- Two/Three (1996)
- Three/Four (2007)
Guitar
- Pregnant Pauses for guitar quartet (2005)
- Processional for guitar (1996)
- 3 Guitars (1980)
Percussion
- Memories and Alterations solo marimba (2008)
- Of Wood and Skins for percussion duo (2003)
- Pas de Deux for marimba and piano (1991)
- Three by Three for percussion trio (1979)
Choral
- A Free Pen, cantata for narrator, soprano, alto, tenor, bass, chorus (8 singers) and chamber ensemble (1990); libretto compiled by the composer from texts by SocratesSocratesSocrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary ...
, Spinoza, Zenger, and others - K. 1971 for narrators, tenor, bass, female chorus, chamber ensemble and electronic tape (1972); based on Kafka’s The Trial, added texts from the Kafka Diaries, Balzac, and the Chinese poet Wen YiduoWen YiduoWen Yiduo , born Wén Jiāhuá , courtesy names Yǒusān , Youshan , was a Chinese poet and scholar.-Biography:Wen was born in Xishui County, Hubei. After receiving a traditional education he went on to continue studying at the Tsinghua University. In 1922, he traveled to the United States to study fine...
. - For Showing Truth for female chorus a cappella (1972, revised 1978); text by John KeatsJohn KeatsJohn Keats was an English Romantic poet. Along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, he was one of the key figures in the second generation of the Romantic movement, despite the fact that his work had been in publication for only four years before his death.Although his poems were not...
- Hymn of Compassionate Love for soloists, choir, trumpet, timpani, and strings (2005); Biblical text: I Corintheans 13
Vocal
- Manhattan Fixation for soprano, mezzo-soprano and cello (solo voices) or female chorus and cello
- Echoes of Emily for alto and English horn (1979); texts by Emily DickinsonEmily DickinsonEmily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life...
- In Shadow for soprano, guitar and clarinet (1972); texts by Emily DickinsonEmily DickinsonEmily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life...
- Journey Towards Oblivion for soprano, tenor and chamber ensemble (1991); based on texts by Christina Rosetti and D.H. Lawrence
- Left Behind for horn and mezzo-soprano (2006); poetry by Edna St. Vincent MillayEdna St. Vincent MillayEdna St. Vincent Millay was an American lyrical poet, playwright and feminist. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and was known for her activism and her many love affairs. She used the pseudonym Nancy Boyd for her prose work...
- Love Songs for soprano and flute/alto flute (1997) or mezzo-soprano and flute/alto flute (2005); texts by Sara TeasdaleSara TeasdaleSara Teasdale , was an American lyrical poet. She was born Sara Trevor Teasdale in St. Louis, Missouri, and after her marriage in 1914 she went by the name Sara Teasdale Filsinger.-Biography:...
- Mariana for mezzo-soprano, clarinet and piano (1995); text by Alfred Lord Tennyson
- To Love? for bass-baritone and piano (1980); settings of an Elizabethan song and poems by Coventry PatmoreCoventry PatmoreCoventry Kersey Dighton Patmore was an English poet and critic best known for The Angel in the House, his narrative poem about an ideal happy marriage.-Youth:...
and Ralph Waldo EmersonRalph Waldo EmersonRalph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century... - Wilde’s World for tenor, viola and guitar (2000); text: "To L.L." by Oscar WildeOscar WildeOscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...