Sheila Silver

Sheila Silver (born 1946 in Seattle, Washington) is an American composer. She was born in Seattle, Washington in 1946, where she started her piano studies at the age of five. In 1968 she received Bachelor of Arts degree from University of California at Berkeley, and earned her Ph.D from Brandeis University in Massachusetts in 1976. She also trained for two years in Europe after being awarded the George Ladd Prix de Paris, and studied with Erhard Karkoschka and Gyorgy Ligeti. According to Chicago Tribune reviewer John von Rhein, "Silver speaks a musical language of her own, one rich in sonority, lyrical intensity and poetic feeling."In addition to the Prix de Paris, Silver has also won the Rome Prize (1978), the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize in Music Composition in Opera (2007), and the ISCM National Composers Competition (twice). Her works include an opera, The Thief of Love, and a piano concerto written for Alexander Paley. Silver is currently working on an opera based on Khaled Hosseini's novel A Thousand Splendid Suns. She is married to director John Feldman, for whom she has composed scores for his films Alligator Eyes, Dead Funny, and Who the Hell is Booby Roos?.Silver has been a professor at both the State University of New York at Stony Brook and the College of William and Mary.