Alan
Silvestri
Born in Manhattan, N.Y., Alan was first drawn to music at an early age. Beginning as a drummer, his love for instruments quickly grew to include the bassoon, clarinet, saxophone, and guitar. His musical life would lead him to the Berklee College of Music in Boston where he enrolled as a composition major.
Continuing to explore his love of music, he moved to Hollywood and the result was his first movie score with the 1972´s The Doberman Gang. Silvestri´s talent for percussive melodies would soon particularly impress Robert Zemeckis, who gave the composer his breakthrough score in the action-comedy hit Romancing the Stone. Both director and composer were suddenly propelled to a hugely successful collaboration that would include the Back to the Future series, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the Oscar-winning Forrest Gump, Contact, What Lies Beneath and Cast Away (for which he won a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition).
Silvestri´s music has helped Zemeckis explore the brave new world of motion-capture animation in the spectacular Christmas fantasy The Polar Express (whose song Believe won a further Grammy Award), the menacing, mythic fable Beowulf and a bold re-imagining of Charles Dickens´ A Christmas Carol.
Through the years and over 100 scores, Alan has distinguished himself in many genres, from thrilling action/suspense (Predator, The Abyss, Identity, G.I. Joe—The Rise of Cobra, The Mummy Returns), to galloping westerns (Young Guns 2, The Quick and the Dead), youthful fantasy (Stuart Little, Lilo and Stitch, Night at the Museum 1 & 2), rollicking comedy (Father of the Bride, The Parent Trap, What Women Want) and heartfelt drama (The Perez Family, Serendipity).
His 2011 and 2012 scores include the film versions of the US comic-superheroes Captain America—The First Avenger and The Avengers.
Whether composing orchestral action, or tender melodies, Alan Silvestri´s work has always been identifiable by its keen sense of melody and theme. And whether in his studio in the Carmel Highlands or the Silvestri vineyard in Carmel Valley, Alan continues to find inspiration and passion for music, film, wine, and life.
In 2011 Silvestri was presented the »Max Steiner Film Music Achievement Award« in Vienna.