Alan Silvestri

From Wind Repertory Project
Alan Silvestri

Biography

Alan Anthony Silvestri (b. 26 March 1950, New York City) is an American composer and conductor who works primarily in film and television. He is best known for his frequent collaboration with director Robert Zemeckis, including composing major hit films such as the Back to the Future trilogy and Forrest Gump, as well as the superhero films Captain America: The First Avenger and Marvel's The Avengers.

Silvestri grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey, and attended Teaneck High School. He went to Berklee College of Music for two years.

Silvestri started his film/television composing career in 1972 at age 21, composing the score for the low-budget action film The Doberman Gang. From 1977 to 1983, Silvestri served as the main composer for the TV show CHiPs, writing music for 109 of the show's 139 episodes.

Silvestri has composed the music for all of Zemeckis's movies, including the Back to the Future trilogy, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Death Becomes Her, Forrest Gump, Contact, Cast Away, The Polar Express, Beowulf, A Christmas Carol, and Flight.

Silvestri is also known for his work on Predator (1987) and Predator 2 (1990), both of which are considered preeminent examples of action/science fiction film scores. Since 2001, Silvestri has also collaborated regularly with director Stephen Sommers, scoring the films The Mummy Returns in 2001, and The Croods in 2013.

Silvestri has also composed music for television shows, including Starsky & Hutch (three episodes), Tales From The Crypt (seven episodes) and Manimal (five episodes).

In 2013, the Carolina Crown Drum and Bugle Corps used portions of the theme from The Abyss as the ballad in their 2013 Drum Corps International World Championship-winning show "E=MC2".

Silvestri has received two Academy Award nominations, one for Best Original Score for Forrest Gump (1994) and one for Best Original Song for Believe on The Polar Express soundtrack. He also received two Golden Globe nominations: Best Score for Forrest Gump and Best Song for The Polar Express.

He has also received four Grammy Award nominations, winning two awards – Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media, for Believe from The Polar Express in 2004 and Best Instrumental Composition, for Cast Away End Credits from Cast Away in 2002.

He has won two Emmys, both for Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey - Outstanding Main Title Theme Music and Outstanding Music Composition for a Series for the episode Standing Up in the Milky Way.


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