Sheila Silver

Ms. Silver earned her Bachelor of Arts from the University of California at Berkeley where she began composition studies with Edwin Dugger. Upon graduation she was awarded the coveted George Ladd Prix de Paris for two years study in Europe where she worked with Erhard Karkoschka and Gyorgy Ligeti. She earned her doctorate from Brandeis University where she studied with Arthur Berger, Harold Shapero, and Seymour Shifrin. Her honors include a Bunting Institute Fellowship; the Rome Prize; the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Composer Award, 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. She was awarded the 2007 Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize in Music Composition in Opera for The Wooden Sword. Silver is Professor of Music at the State University of New York, Stony Brook.