Sheila Silver is an important and vital voice in American music today. Her compositions have been commissioned and performed by numerous orchestras, ensembles, and soloists throughout the world. She has written in a wide range of mediums: from solo instrumental works to large orchestral works; from opera to feature film scores. Her musical language is a unique synthesis of the tonal and atonal worlds, coupled with a rhythmic complexity which is both masterful and compelling. Again and again, audiences and critics praise her music as powerful and emotionally charged, accessible, and masterfully conceived. “Only a few composers in any generation enliven the art form with their musical language and herald new directions in music. Sheila Silver is such a visionary.” (Wetterauer Zeitung)

Her opera, A Thousand Splendid Suns, based on Khaled Hosseini’s international best-selling novel, was premiered in 2023 by the Seattle Opera to rave reviews and was short-listed for “Best World Premiere” by the International Opera Awards 2023. “Sheila Silver’s sweeping score is magnificent — dramatic, richly colored, and full of texture and melody. (Opera Wire) In preparation for and throughout the composing of this opera, Silver studied Hindustani music with the late Pandit Kedar Narayan Bodas in India in order to incorporate an authentic Hindustani musical color into her score.

Her honors include: a 2013 Guggenheim Fellowship, numerous Opera America awards for the development of A Thousand Splendid Suns, the Sackler Prize in Music Composition for Opera for The Wooden Sword; Bunting Institute Fellowship; the Rome Prize; the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Composer Award; NEA awards, twice winner of the ISCM National Composers Competition; and awards and commissions from the Rockefeller Foundation (Bellagio Residency), the Camargo Foundation, the MacDowell Colony, New York State Council of the Arts, the Barlow Foundation, the Paul Fromm Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Cary Trust.

Resilient Earth, Seven Preludes for piano, and Four Caprices for solo violin, was premiered in July 2022 at the Samuel Dorsky Museum, New Paltz, NY, for the closing celebrations of the art exhibit, The Observing Heart, a retrospective exhibit of the work of Mary Frank with Ryan MacEvoy McCullough, piano, and Emmanuel Vukovich, violin. Composed 2020-2022 during COVID, each of the Caprices and Preludes is inspired by the natural world and in some cases, our destructive relationship to it. Three Duos for violin and piano, have been added to the series, to be premiered 2025 in Germany with Vukovich and Yannick Rafalimanana. The Caprices were recently released on the Warner Classics label.

Being in Life, a 2018 Paul Fromm Commission for horn/Alphorn, string orchestra, and 5 Tibetan singing bowls, composed for Ann Ellsworth and the Northwest Philharmonia, has been arranged for horn trio plus optional bowls. The quartet version was recently premiered as part of Stony Brook Premieres series by Ellsworth with Phil Setzer (violin), Miki Aoki (piano), and John Ling (Tibetan bowls.)

Silver was the Elliot Carter Resident Composer at the American Academy in Rome in Spring 2020, where she worked on If Trees Could Talk for 4 female singers, piano, Tibetan bowls, and video projections. It was premiered at Songfest 2022.

One of her most performed works, Beauty Intolerable, A Songbook based on the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay, contains 14 songs and two rounds and was recently recorded with singers Dawn Upshaw, Stephanie Blythe, Lucy Fitz Gibbon, Deanne Meek, and Risa Renae Harman on a 2 disc CD set with all of Silver’s song repertoire from 1979-2018. Of the recording, American Record Guide says “Silver…writes music that marries the delicious bitterness of jazzy discord with lush, cool harmonies and merges the two harmonic moods together with ease…The music is just as rich and captivating as the text that inspired it…”

Recordings on the Naxos label include her Piano Concerto and Six Preludes for Piano on poems of Baudelaire with Alexander Paley, piano, and the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra, Gintaras Rinkevius, conductor and Shirat Sara (Song of Sarah) with Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony Strings; Twilight’s Last Gleaming, (Gilbert Kalish and Christina Dahl) for two pianos and percussion is on the Bridge Label.

Silver composed the film score for indie feature Who the Hell is Bobby Roos? – awarded the New American Cinema Award at the Seattle International Film Festival, 2002 and more recently the scores for Symbiotic Earth: How Lynn Margulis rocked the boat and started a scientific revolution, (2018) and Regenerating Life; How to cool the planet, feed the world, and live happy ever after (2024).

Born and raised in Seattle Washington, she earned her BA from U.C. Berkeley (1968) and her PhD from Brandeis University (1976). Her mentors and teachers include Edwin Dugger, Erhard Karkoschka, Gyorgy Ligeti, Arthur Berger, and Jacob Druckman. Sheila currently lives in Spencertown, New York, with her husband, filmmaker John Feldman. Their son, Victor Feldman, is a journalist. Silver is Professor Emerita of Music at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. Her music is published by Lauren Keiser Music, Mostly Marimba , and Argenta Music, and is recorded on various labels.

Sheila Silver has written in a wide range of mediums, from solo instrumental to large orchestral works, from opera to feature film scores. “Only a few composers in any generation enliven the art form with their musical language and herald new directions in music. Sheila Silver is such a visionary.” (Wetterauer Zeitung, Germany)

Her recent opera, A Thousand Splendid Suns, based on the international best-selling novel by Khaled Hosseini, was premiered to rave reviews by the Seattle Opera in February, 2023. In order to develop a musical vocabulary with which to evoke the color of Afghanistan in the opera, Sheila made several trips to India to study Hindustani music with Pandit Kedar Narayan Bodas. This Hindustani sound world has filtered into many of her recent compositions.

Her honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Sackler Prize in Opera; several Opera America awards; Bunting Institute Fellowship; Rome Prize; Prix de Paris, American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Composer Award and numerous grants and commissions. Her music is performed internationally.

A two CD album of her vocal works, Beauty Intolerable: Songs of Sheila Silver, was recently released on the Albany label and includes performances by Dawn Upshaw, Stephanie Blythe, Lucy Fitz Gibbon, Deanne Meek and Risa Renae Harman. Resilient Earth, a set of 7 piano preludes and 4 caprices for solo violin, was premiered in July 2022 at the Dorsky Museum in New Paltz, NY, in connection with the Mary Frank retrospective, The Observing Heart, with Emmanuel Vukovich, violin, and Ryan MacEvoy McCullough, piano.

Silver is Professor Emeritus of Music at Stony Brook University. Her teachers have included Arthur Berger, Harold Shapero, Erhard Karkoschka, and Gyorgy Ligeti. She was born and raised in Seattle, Washington and began studying piano at the age of 5. Sheila and her husband, film-maker John Feldman, make their home in the Hudson Valley, New York.

“Sheila Silver is a creative dynamo. Her music is vital, with a conviction that obliterates fashion and speaks its own language.”
The American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters

The Thief of Love “Music of great beauty” (read more)Howard Smith, Music and Vision

Midnight Prayer, Rochester Philharmonic performance review: “An important and substantial piece… Silver describes her work as a “prayer for world peace,” but it is no quiet, passive meditation. Rather, it is a remarkable 12 minute tone poem that conveys a sense of urgency through its ingenious use of harmonic tension and orchestral color.”
John Pitcher, Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester

(Review of Naxos CD, Piano Concerto and Piano Preludes) “There will always be lots of promising careers of young musicians. Many end up, after brilliant educations, in oblivion. Some, with enormous energy, gain acceptance into the ranks of the establishment; but only a few of them in any generation will enliven the art form with their musical language and herald new directions in music. Sheila Silver is such a visionary.”
Wetterauer Zeitung,Germany

“To the Spirit Unconquered proved to be a stunning modern masterpiece, a work of profound musical and emotional depth…. It is one of those rare compositions that grabs you emotionally and will not let go. Silver’s manipulation of her musical material is masterful.”
Journal American, Bellevue/Seattle, Washington

“Silver speaks a musical language of her own, one rich in sonority, lyrical intensity and poetic feeling.”  John von Rhein, Chicago Tribune

(The Thief of Love)“Standing ovations confirmed that the full-house audience had been thoroughly won over by the opera, which is set in a mythical kingdom in ancient India.”
India Abroad, International Weekly Newspaper

(The Thief of Love)“a beautifully shot film… The drama moves along convincingly, never bogging down or getting sidetracked on tangents. And there is genuine good humor in it, a rarity in contemporary opera…The performers, from the principal cast through the chorus and orchestra, give their all. Gwendolyn Hillman, as Vidya, sings with warmth, strength and gracefulness. Hers is a voice that truly matters, and one that deserves international attention. James Brown is very well suited to the role of the youthful, charming Sundar…Among the secondary cast, Michael Douglas Jones (Vidya’s father) and Manami Hattori (Hira) are particularly praiseworthy. David Lawton directs a taut, dynamic interpretation of the score and the Stony Brook Orchestra plays as finely as many more well-known orchestras.
Opera News

(The Thief of Love) “Not only is the story entertaining, but so is the score. This is Silver’s first opera, but she knows what a good opera needs: melody. And she offers it in abundance. It all sounds quite fresh and appealing.” (read more)
American Record Guide

Sheila Silver’s Ek Ong Kar had singular originality and verve. Based on an Indian Sikh mantra, this was the most consistently inventive work of the evening.
Jules Langert, San Francisco Classical Voice

(Piano Concerto) The audience liked what it heard, calling composer, soloist and conductor back for several bows…. This is a modern work, but is not extremely dissonant. It is, however, almost savage at times, reminding one of Prokofiev gone wild. Lovely, lyric moments are offset by stormy passages that utilize the entire orchestra.. …chances are it could enter the standard repertory and stay there for a long time.”
Richmond Times Dispatch

Paley played like a man possessed…..there were shouts and cheers from the audience…. .
New York Times

“Her style is clear, accessible and non-tonal. And she knows how to write a great tune…..From Darkness Emerging is a fine piece by a master composer. It should be heard often.”
Susan Larsen, Boston Globe

“The work is a major contribution to chamber music, not only because of its unusual scoring but more importantly because of the music itself… In fact, the notes and phrases that comprise From Darkness Emerging are compelling: often intense, often lyrical in a dreamy kind of way, but always full of genuine inspiration.”
R. M. Campbell, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

“The middle movement (of From Darkness Emerging) was pure enchantment, with little strands of music spinning off from the main body of sound like so many horses on a wayward carousel.”
Washington Post

“Most important, “Spirit” is accessible unlike much modern music. There’s a rhyme and reason to it, a sense of direction. ….To say the least, “Spirit” is poignant, to say the most, remarkable.”
Virginia Gazette, Williamsburg

“….it (Sonata for Cello and Piano) is certainly one of the most immediately attractive string works I have heard from the second half of this century.”
David Denton, The Strad

“Sheila Silver offers in “The Song of Sarah” a remarkably evocative score based on the Bible…. It really touches both the mind and the heart.”
Robert Marsh, Chicago Sun Times

(Shirat Sara)“Silver’s ability to construct an argument sui generis impresses me the most. I’ve listened to this work a lot in the past month, and I discover something new each time. I don’t pretend to have its measure yet, although it’s not a matter of understanding the language so much as it is perceiving relationships among movements. I have no idea how to tell a masterpiece with any reliability, but Silver’s score at least makes me ask the question: if not, why not. I haven’t yet found an answer, a good sign.”   Stephen Schwarz, Classical CD Review

Sheila Silver’s Canto matches Pound’s text with music of a comparably audacious directness, simplicity, and specificity and therefore boldly occupies a psycho-spiritual region that few other composers have cared to approach; it is a beautiful work.”

Richard Dyer, The Boston Globe

“The message of Sappho in Sheila Silver’s Chariessa is submerged in an expressionistic atmosphere of struggle and tenderness. …The incandescent chromaticism of the score by Silver is contained and controlled within highly calculated limits and sustained through a highly expert instrumentation. We would like to hear more of this musician.”
La Repubblica, Rome