Silvestri, Alan

Silvestri was born March 26, 1950 in New York. Grew a few miles west of New York in Tinek, New Jersey . His father is the son of an Italian immigrant, and his mother was from a family of Irish immigrants. From early childhood he was interested in music. At 3 years old, he began to play drums. While studying at the Tineken School, he was a member of the school’s orchestra and learned to play the bassoon , clarinet , saxophone and woodwind. In addition, Alan was very fond of baseball .

At the age of 14, he bought a guitar for $ 15 and began to learn to play it. At the age of 15, he seriously thought about making music making his profession. At the same time, he did not think about writing music for films, but rather saw himself as a jazz performer, as he loved jazz very much, and especially jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery . In 1967, Silvestri founded his first jazz orchestra, The South Winds Trio , where he played the guitar, Glen Golbin ( English Glen Gollobin ) - the flute, and Ken Petretti ( English Ken Petretti ) - on the drums.

After graduating from high school in 1968, he enrolled in the jazz department of the Berkeley College of Music in Boston . He stayed in Berkeley for less than two years, because he wanted to write music himself. In 1970, he moved to Las Vegas and performed as a 20-year-old guitarist for the blues band Wayne Cochran and the S. C. Ryders. But, despite this, he did not abandon his studies, but continued to study. The following story was told by trombone player Mike Katz ^[1] :

After a short trip back to Boston, Sylvestry returned to Las Vegas and became a guitarist and arranger in a musical group. At a certain moment a certain person became interested in them. ^{[ specify ]} and suggested concluding a studio recording contract. To sign the contract, they had to go to Phoenix . After signing, they learned that real wages are very low. Since, under the terms of the contract, the musicians were associated with the studio for the rest of their lives, they decided to find this fraudster in his city and went to Los Angeles . The musicians were able to buy out a fake contract, but when they arrived in Los Angeles, they found themselves in a difficult situation: they did not know anyone in this city, and besides, they had almost no money. Silvestri met his friend, who introduced him to Bradford Craig. Bradford invited Silvestri to write music for films and introduced him to the producer of the Dobermann Gang . With his last money, he bought a handbook for writing music and set to work. Sylvestri was given two weeks, and during this time he wrote more than 60 minutes of music. The film was a failure, so after that, Silvestri was invited only to low-budget films. However, this was his first experience in film music ^[2] .

In 1976, Silvestri began to learn to play the piano. A year later, director Paul Michael Glaser invited him to write music for the series Starsky and Hutch . After he wrote the music for several episodes, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer invited him to write music for the California Road Patrol series. Silvestri agreed, and began writing music from the second season (1978). During the show, he wrote more than 120 hours of music.

California Road Patrol was a turning point in his life. He gained vast experience in film music. In parallel, he also worked as a guitarist and arranger with Jimmy Smith , Mystique and Scherrie & Susaye . Silvestri’s long-standing love of the guitar gradually disappeared from the moment he began to compose films. In 1983, the California Road Patrol was suddenly canceled. Through the connections of composer Mark Snow, he tried to compose music for a policeman ^{[ clarify ]} T.J. Hooker , but the producers were not satisfied, and Silvestri was not hired.

In 1983, Silvestri met Robert Zemeckis , who asked to write only three minutes of music for the film " Novel with a Stone " for the moment when the heroine Kathleen Turner runs through the jungle. Silvestri just started to equip a music studio at home, but he still had little equipment. In the morning, Michael Douglas (who was also a producer) offered him a contract. Zemeckis invited Silvestri to almost all of his films. Also during the filming, he met with conductor James Campball, with whom he then worked together until 1991. In 1985, Zemeckis introduced Silvestri to Steven Spielberg , who was very impressed with the work of the young composer and therefore decided to hire him in a permanent place ^[3] .

Together, Silvestri and Zemeckis created films such as the trilogy " Back to the Future ", " Forrest Gump ", " Outcast ", " Contact " and many others. However, they became friends.

The biggest work for Silvestri was the music for the film Forrest Gump . He was able to prove that he could also easily write “heavier”, dramatic, emotional music. For the music in this film, he was nominated for an Oscar , Grammy , and Golden Globe . In 1995, Silvestri was awarded the “Richard Kirk Award” from BMI Music Radio for outstanding achievements in music, and also made him an honorary member of the College of Music of Berkeley in which he studied.

In 1978, Silvestri married Sandra. In the 1970s, she was a model, but left work shortly after they got married. They live in the small town of Carmel-by-the-Sea in northern California with their three children, Alexandra, Joey and James. They own a ranch with a large number of cattle, horses and other animals. Silvestri loves to work on his ranch and go around him on a tractor. He also has a large vineyard where he wants to produce wine for sale, they are called Silvestri vineyards ^[4] .

Their son Joey has type 1 diabetes. He was on the edge of a coma when he was two years old. Sandra recalls:

Finding a cure for their son’s chronic illness is a major goal in Alan and Sandra’s life. They spend a lot of time and money on it. They co-chaired the Children's Congress, the Children's Diabetes Research Foundation , in 1999. In addition, Sandra is also a member of the international council of this fund.

Silvestri loves to fly. He has a private license and his own aircraft. When he goes to meetings, he pilots the plane.

Soundtracks

A large number of soundtracks for films with music by Alan Silvestri were released ^[5] . Separate discs were also released:

• 1994 - Selected Themes
• 1995 - Voyages: The Film Music Journeys Of Alan Silvestri
• 1997 - Selected Themes: The Special Edition
• 1998 - Selected Themes (2nd edition)
• 1999 - The Back to the Future Trilogy
• 2001 - Cast Away: The Zemeckis / Silvestri collection
• 2007 - Música de Cine 2 (concert in Madrid)

Albums

• 1977 - Sit on It! - Jimmy Smith - author, guitarist, arranger
• 1977 - Mystique featuring Ralph Johnson - arranger
• 1979 - Partners - Scherrie & Susaye - guitarist, arranger
• 1995 - Move to Groove: The Best of 1970s Jazz-Funk - author, guitarist, arranger
• 1997 - The Big Picture - arranger
• 1999 - Ultimate Collection - Dennis DeYoung (rock) - arranger, producer
• 2000 - Mystique (1977 album release) - arranger

In addition, there are many unreleased music that is distributed free of charge to a small group of people. However, some, in particular the webmaster of the official Silvestri website, are unhappy with this, because they believe that all his music should be officially released ^[6] .

The most significant awards and nominations are listed. See the full list on IMDb ^[7]

• Alan Silvestri at the Internet Movie Database
• Alan Silvestri - Official Site
• SoundtrackCollector List of Soundtracks