Alan Silvestri

 

In his ongoing, decades-long career as a composer, Alan Silvestri has blazed an innovative trail with his exciting and melodic scores, winning the applause of Hollywood and movie audiences the world over. With a credit list of well over 90 films Silvestri has composed some of the most recognizable and beloved themes in movie history. His efforts have been recognized with two Oscar and Golden Globe nominations, three Grammy awards, two Emmy awards as well as numerous International Film Music Critics Awards, Saturn Awards and Hollywood Music in Media Awards.

Born in New York City and raised in Teaneck, New Jersey, Silvestri first thought of becoming a bebop jazz guitar player. After spending two years at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, he hit the road as a performer and arranger. Landing in Hollywood at the age of 22, he found himself successfully composing the music for 1972’s The Doberman Gang which established his place in the world of film composing.

The 1970s witnessed the rise of energetic synth-pop scores, establishing Silvestri as the action rhythmist for TV’s highway patrol hit Chips. This action driven score caught the ear of budding filmmaker Robert Zemeckis, whose hit film 1984’s Romancing the Stone was the perfect first date for the composer and director and its success became the basis of decades long collaboration between the filmmaker and composer that continues to the current day. Their numerous collaborations have taken them through many fascinating landscapes and stylistic variations, from the Back to the Future trilogy to the jazzy world of Toontown in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, to the tension filled rooms of What Lies Beneath and Death Becomes Her, from the cosmic wonder of Contact to the emotional isolation of Castaway, to the magic of the Polar Express. But perhaps no film partnership defines their creative relationship better than Zemeckis’ 1994 Best Picture winner Forrest Gump, for which Silvestri’s gift for melodically beautiful themes earned him an Oscar and Golden Globe nomination and the affection of film music lovers everywhere. This 35 year, 17 film collaboration includes such recent films as Flight, Allied and Welcome to Marwen. In 2022 Zemeckis and Silvestri completed Disney’s Pinocchio, the live-action retelling of the classic tale.

Though the Zemeckis/Silvestri collaboration is legendary, Silvestri has scored films of every imaginable style and genre. His energy has brought excitement and emotion to the hard-hitting orchestral scores of Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One, James Cameron’s The Abyss as well as Predator and The Mummy Returns. Alan’s diversity is on full display in family entertainment films like The Father of the Bride 1 and 2, Parent Trap, Stuart Little 1 and 2, Disney’s Lilo and Stitch, The Croods as well as Night at the Museum 1, 2 and 3 while his passion for melody fuels the romantic emotion of films like The Bodyguard and What Women Want.

In 2019 Alan composed the music for Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame. The film is a culmination of a partnership with Marvel that began in 2011 with Alan’s dynamically heroic score for Captain America: The First Avenger. Since 2011 Alan’s collaboration with Marvel helped propel The Avengers and Avengers: Infinity War to spectacular world-wide success.

Silvestri’s success has also crossed into the world of songwriting. His partnership with Six-Time Grammy Award winner Glen Ballard has produced hits such as the Grammy-winning and Oscar-nominated song Believe (Josh Groban) for The Polar Express, Butterfly Fly Away (Miley Cyrus) for Hannah Montana the Movie, God Bless Us Everyone (Andrea Bocelli) for A Christmas Carol and A Hero Comes Home (Idina Menzel) for Beowulf. The duo’s most recent project is Back to the Future – The Musical which opened on London’s West End in the summer of 2021 and for which the pair were nominated for Britain’s Olivier Award for Best Original Score or New Orchestrations.

Alan and his wife Sandra are longtime residents of California’s central coast. The Silvestri family has embarked on a new venture as the founders of Silvestri Vineyards. Their wines show that lovingly cultivated fruit has a music all its own. “There’s something about the elemental side of winemaking that appeals to me,” he says. “Both music making and wine making involve the blending of art and science. Just as each note brings its own voice to the melody, each vine brings its own unique personality to the wine.”