Sheila Silver’s compositions have been commissioned and performed by numerous orchestras, chamber ensembles, and soloists throughout the United States and Europe. Born in Seattle, Washington in 1946, Silver began piano studies at the age of five. Ms. Silver earned her Bachelor of Arts from the University of California at Berkeley in 1968 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 in Stuttgart and Gyorgy Ligeti in Berlin and Hamburg. She earned her doctorate from Brandeis University, where she studied with Arthur Berger, Harold Shapero, and Seymour Shifrin. Again and again, audiences and critics praise her music as powerful and emotionally charged, accessible, and masterfully conceived. “Only a few composers in any generation enliven the art form with their musical language and herald new directions in music. Sheila Silver is such a visionary.” (Wetterauer Zeitung, Germany, 2004).

Her recent opera, A Thousand Splendid Suns, based on the international best-selling novel by Khaled Hosseini, was premiered to rave reviews by the Seattle Opera in February 2023.

Her honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Sackler Prize in Opera; several Opera America awards; Bunting Institute Fellowship; Rome Prize; Prix de Paris, American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Composer Award and numerous grants and commissions. She is Professor Emeritus of Music at Stony Brook University. “Ms. Silver’s music is a Porsche – even at idle you feel the power under the hood.” (Post Alley)

Sheila Silver and John Feldman have been married since 1988 and have one son, Victor Feldman.