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Biography of Alan Silvestri

Alan Silvestri, one of the most successful and talented composers of our time, was born on March 26, 1950, in New York.

After six years of similar work in the film industry, Silvestri transitioned to television and became involved in the popular dramatic series about California police officers, "ChiPs" (1977-1983).

Following his six-year tenure in television, Silvestri returned to the big screen and composed music for the French film "How Did You Get In?

We Didn't See You Leave!" (1984). My impression of what I do is very much like conversing with film. "How to marry sound to image is a question the composer has to continually ask himself as he is writing," he told American Film. Ultimately, Silvestri always strives to stretch his creative muscles, to try things he hasn't done before.

However, the turning point in Alan Silvestri's career came when he met director Robert Zemeckis, who was looking for a composer for his Hollywood blockbuster "Romancing the Stone" (1984). His more recent credits include Cast Away and What Lies Beneath (2000).

Although he received no formal training in film scoring, Silvestri was deeply influenced by the films he saw as a child, and this, in turn, has influenced his work.

From then on, he became consistently busy with major Hollywood films, such as the "Back to the Future" trilogy (1985), "Predator" (1987), "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" (1988), and "The Abyss" (1989).

In the 1990s, Silvestri continued his work in American blockbusters, including "Predator 2" (1990), "Soapdish" (1991), "Father of the Bride" (1991), "Super Mario Bros." (1993), "Grumpy Old Men" (1993), and "Forrest Gump" (1994), for which he received an Academy Award nomination in 1995.

Education: Attended Berklee College of Music, Boston, MA. Addresses: Record company--Varese Sarabande Records, 11846 Ventura Blvd., Suite 130, Studio City, CA 91604.

Called "one of the most prolific and gifted of the current generation of film composers" by American Film magazine, Alan Silvestri has composed scores for Hollywood blockbusters including Romancing the Stone (which marked Silvestri's first big break as a composer for film), the Back to the Future series, the Bodyguard, Forrest Gump, and Cast Away.

Together they decide what kind of sound the film is to have, and, as the film nears completion, they hammer out the details of what scenes are to include music and where it will start and stop. In 2000, Alan Silvestri composed music for the films "Cast Away" and "What Lies Beneath." Some other notable films scored by Silvestri include "What Women Want" (2000), "The Mexican" (2001), "Intacto" (2001), "Lilo & Stitch" (2002), "Stuart Little 2" (2002), "Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life" (2003), "Van Helsing" (2004), "Night at the Museum" (2006), and "Beowulf" (2007).

Even so, directors have been known to throw out entire film scores and start over, often with a new composer.

Along with purely artistic considerations that come into play when scoring film music, Silvestri must work within the technical requirements of filmmaking--for instance, writing music loud enough to come through a scene involving a freight train, or soft enough to avoid stepping on quiet dialogue.

After graduating from high school in 1968, he enrolled in the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.

After studying at Berklee for two years, Alan Silvestri ventured to Las Vegas and started performing with Wayne Cochran and the C.C. Riders. You are spending about $50,000 a day and you are getting maybe two minutes of music an hour.

His early style is marked by a strong use of the octatonic scale, as well as an eclectic use of different notes and instruments.
Silvestri has received two Academy Award nominations, one for Best Original Music Score for Forrest Gump (1994) and one for Best Original Song for “Believe” on The Polar Express soundtrack. He continued to land high-profile film projects in the 1990s, composing for such films as Predator 2, Soapdish, Father of the Bride, Super Mario Brothers, Grumpy Old Men, and Forrest Gump, for which he received an Academy Award nomination in 1995.

He also composed music for films such as "The Lady in Red" (1975) and "The Amazing Dobermans" (1976). Promised a job arranging music in Los Angeles, Silvestri moved west and found himself unemployed in the film capital of the world when the job fell through.