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 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

Beginning his musical career as a rock guitarist and songwriter, he 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 recent 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").

Since 2006, Silverman has held the position of Assistant 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").

Recordings

*2007: "Daniel Lippel: "Sustenance." New Focus Records.
**Includes Adam Silverman: "Three Fell Swoops."
*2006: "Lara Downes: "Dream of Me." Tritone Records.
**Includes Adam Silverman: "Nocturnes and Reveries."
*1998: "The Frog Peak Collaborations Project." Frog Peak Records.
**Includes Adam Silverman: "Credit is the History of Words Without History."
*1998: "New Music: Young Composers." Cane Records.
**Includes Adam Silverman: "Just Music Makes Me Lose My Temper."

External links

* [http://www.adambsilverman.com/ Adam Silverman official site]
* [http://www.adambsilverman.com/korczak/ "Korczak's Orphans" official site]
* [http://www.minimumsecurity.org/ The Minimum Security Composers Collective official site]

Persondata
NAME=Silverman, Adam
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Composer, musician
DATE OF BIRTH=August 15, 1973
PLACE OF BIRTH=Atlanta, GA, USA
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=