Faye-Ellen Silverman facts for kids

Faye-Ellen Silverman is an American composer born on October 2, 1947. She creates contemporary classical music, which is a type of music written in modern times. Besides composing, she is also a writer and a teacher.

Early Life and Education

Faye-Ellen Silverman was born in New York City, New York. She started learning music at the Dalcroze School of Music when she was almost four years old. When she was thirteen, she won a special competition. The famous conductor Leopold Stokowski was one of the judges.

Winning this contest led to her performing her own music at Carnegie Hall. She even appeared on a TV show called Wonderama with Sonny Fox. She learned to play the piano, clarinet, and some viola. She also played in school bands, orchestras, and sang in choirs.

After many years at Dalcroze, she spent a year at the Manhattan School of Music. She then went to college early, after her junior year of high school.

College and Advanced Studies

Silverman attended Barnard College. There, she studied how to compose music with Otto Luening. She also took a class about 20th-century music with Henry Cowell. She spent her third year at the Mannes College of Music. She graduated with honors in music.

She continued her studies at Harvard University. She earned her master's degree in music composition. She learned from composers like Leon Kirchner and Lukas Foss. She also studied piano privately during this time.

Later, she went to Columbia University for her doctorate degree (DMA). She studied composition and electronic music there. Her teachers included Vladimir Ussachevsky and Jack Beeson.

Composing Music

Faye-Ellen Silverman became a published composer in her mid-twenties. Her first published work was "Three Movements for Saxophone Alone." She joined ASCAP, an organization that protects the rights of music creators.

Her music has won many awards over the years. For example, her piece "Oboe-sthenics" was chosen to represent the United States. This led to it being played on radios around the world in 1982. She also won a composition contest in Indiana. The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra performed her winning piece.

On September 30, 1982, the mayor of Baltimore even named it "Faye-Ellen Silverman Day." She has also received awards from the National League of American Pen Women. She has been a fellow at several artist colonies, like the MacDowell Colony and Yaddo. These places give artists time and space to create.

Performances and Commissions

Many groups have performed Dr. Silverman's music. These include the Baltimore Symphony and the Brooklyn Philharmonic. Her works have been heard at the Aspen Music Festival. They are also often performed at The Construction Company in New York City.

She has also received many commissions. A commission is when someone asks a composer to write a new piece of music. She has created music for various groups and musicians. These include the International Women’s Brass Conference and the Monarch Brass Quintet. She also wrote pieces for specific musicians, like flutist Nina Assimakopoulos.

Teaching Music

Faye-Ellen Silverman started teaching piano to children during her last year of college. She taught at community music schools and gave private lessons. She also taught classes that combined movement and music.

She began her college teaching career at Columbia University. She taught at several colleges in New York City. Then, she took a full-time teaching job at Goucher College from 1977 to 1980. There, she taught music theory and other courses.

She also taught at the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University. She focused on 20th-century music history for graduate students. She taught at the Aspen Music Festival and the school of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center.

From 1991 to 2016, she taught music history at Mannes College The New School for Music. She also taught composition and ear training. She gave lectures in Europe and across the United States. She has been a visiting composer at many universities. These include the Aspen Music Festival and the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw.

Performing Music

Silverman learned to play the piano because composers are often told they need to be good pianists. She became skilled enough to record music for a German public radio station.

She has performed at the International Festival of Experimental Music in France. She also played at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. She has performed as a soloist with the Brooklyn Philharmonic in New York City. She also plays piano to accompany singers and other musicians.

Musical Style

Faye-Ellen Silverman pays close attention to the unique sounds of different instruments. She often works with musicians to get their ideas and feedback. While some of her music is very challenging to play, she tries to write pieces that are enjoyable for musicians and audiences.

She uses different structures for each piece of music. For example, in her orchestral work "Adhesions," she mixes pleasant melodies with sounds that are not as smooth. Her early life was filled with Jewish songs and dances. This background can be heard in some of her works. One example is her early opera, "The Miracle of Nemirov." Another is "Protected Sleep," a piece for horn and marimba.

Selected Writings

• "Beethoven Today Would Be Exploring New Forms" (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)
• "Report from New York City: Computer Conference, June 1973." (Current Musicology no. 17, 1974)

Silverman also wrote the 20th-century section for a book called The Schirmer History of Music (1982).

Musical Works

See also

In Spanish: Faye-Ellen Silverman para niños