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Recording artist Tracy Silverman has performed and recorded with
a virtual who's who of the rock, pop, new music, and jazz fields,
and is considered one of the foremost electric violinists of our
time, known both in the concert hall and in clubs, with a trademark
sound which is instantly recognizable. His 1999 self-produced release,
Trip to the Sun has become a cult favorite which Billboard
Magazine pronounced "the most adventurous Windham Hill album
ever." The New York Times raved, "fleet agility
and tangy expressivity, with wailing hints of Jimi Hendrix,"
the LA Times reported, "He was in constant melodic flow.
Silverman is in a class of his own," and the Dallas Morning
News said, "Tracy Silverman played as if he believed in
every note." "Piercing and poignant" according to
the San Francisco Chronicle, and Adams' The Dharma at
Big Sur, featuring Tracy Silverman, has been heralded by the
Wichita Eagle as "the ideal piece for today's symphony."
Silverman was first violinist with the Turtle Island String Quartet
for four years and has been featured as a violinist and record producer
on CBS News Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood. He produced
and appears on Jim Brickman's hit CDs, Simple Things and
Lovesongs and Lullabies and on two of Jim's popular TV specials.
An international touring artist, in 1999 he was awarded Artist-in-Residence
status by the city of Hamburg, Germany, and is a frequent concert
attraction in Brazil. The Rhein Zeitung wrote "…technically
brilliant to the fingertips, but overthrowing all the usual preconceived
ideas." "Silverman is a fine, expressive player,"
said the London Guardian.
2003 highlights included performing as a soloist with the Los Angeles
Philharmonic under Esa-Pekka Salonen premiering a major new electric
violin concerto written specifically for him by Pulitzer Prize-winning
composer John Adams ("the closest thing to a genuine collaboration
I've ever done with a performer") for the gala opening of the
new Frank Gehry designed Walt Disney Concert Hall. Performances
in Bremen, Germany; upcoming performances of The Dharma at Big
Sur in Brazil; touring with Jim Brickman and co-headlining the
2003 Windham Hill Winter Solstice Tour.
Silverman has been playing violin since he was 5 years old, and
made his professional debut at age 13 as first place winner and
soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and has since been honored
with many awards, including the national Stillman-Kelly Award. He
was accepted at the Chicago Musical College when he was 16 and at
17 began studies with legendary teacher Ivan Galamian. Silverman
graduated from the Juilliard School, where he studied chamber music
with Sam Rhodes of the Juilliard Quartet and Lewis Kaplan of the
Aeolian Chamber Players. He has served on the faculty of Macalester
College in St. Paul and University of Minnesota's MacPhail Center
for the Arts in Minneapolis and has led masterclasses and workshops
at Stanford University, Oberlin Conservatory, University of Massachusetts
at Amherst, Hochschule fur die Kunste in Bremen as well as others
in Germany, Brazil and elsewhere.
Other performance highlights include: Carnegie Hall with Billy
Taylor; the Montreal Jazz festival; Vienna's Mozartsalle; Istanbul's
Rey Concert Hall; the Hollywood Bowl; tours with Bob Geldof, new-age/pop
pianist Jim Brickman, famed minimalist composer/pianist Terry Riley
as part of the Terry Riley All-Stars; the Umbria Jazz Festival;
Festival Inverno in Brazil; Mozartfest in Wurzburg; Bremen Musikfest;
as a soloist at the Nurnberg Jazz Festival; Royal Festival Hall
as part of London's 2001 Meltdown Festival; performances with classical
guitarists Eliot Fisk, David Tanenbaum, Alvaro Pierri, Gyan Riley
and the Newman-Oltman Guitar Duo: and as soloist with symphonies
including the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kent Negano,
Orquestra Jazz Sinfonica in Sao Paulo and the San Jose Symphony.
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