Music by Sheila Silver

Libretto by Stephen Kitsakos
Based on the novel by Khaled Hosseini

Opera in One Act for 5 soloists, small chorus and chamber ensemble of 11 instruments. With libretto by Stephen Kitsakos, based on a folk tale from Afghani and Jewish traditions.

2010,Winner of the 2007 Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize for Music Composition. Premiere Nov. 2010, U. of Conn. Storrs and Stamford. Gary English, Director, Jeffrey Renshaw, cond.

Publisher: Argenta Music

Based on a Bengali tale; libretto by the composer. For 11 soloists, chorus, and full orchestra. Piano score available.

1981-86. Excerpts read by the New York City Opera, May 2000. Fully-staged world premiere by the Stony Brook Opera, March 9 and 11, 2001. David Lawton, conductor, Ned Canty, director. Film of Stony Brook production made by John Feldman released by Hummingbird Films on DVD, May 2006. New York City premiere screening, presented by American Opera Projects and Makor/92nd St. Y.

Publisher: Argenta Music

Cantata (semi-staged) for women’s vocal quartet, 6 Tibetan singing bowls, and percussion.

Commissioned for Tapestry by Freer Sackler Galleries of the Smithsonian for the exhibit, In the Realm of the Buddha, Premiere, July, 2010.

Publisher: Argenta Music

2 violins, 2 violas, 2 celli

A Setting of “Canto XXXIX” for baritone and viola, cello, bass, oboe, trumpet, trombone, 3 percussion. 9 players plus baritone (Ob (Eng. Hn), Trumpet, Trombone, vla, ce, cbs, 3 percuss)

for chamber ensemble: 12 players fl(picc)- ob(E hn), cl(bs cl), bsn(cbsn); hn, trp; pno, perc; vln, vla, vcl, bs

1998. Commissioned by the Stony Brook Chamber Players and premiered at Stony Brook Staller Center and Miller Theater, NYC, May 1998.

For oboe, harp, violin, viola, cello

for two pianos and two percussion

2007 For Gilbert Kalish and Christina Dahl, pianos, and Eduardo Leandro and Kevin Dufford, percussion. Premiered Dec. 07, at Morgan Library, NYC. Recorded on Bridge Label

For contrabass and piano, in three movements.

Two wind instruments: upper and lower
(clarinet, oboe, soprano sax, with bass clarinet, bassoon, tenor sax — any combination possible), tape and video
1999. To go with SUBWAY SUNSET, both of which have a video component. MusicVision for 2 wind instruments, tape track and video projection. Requires video an audio projection.

for oboe, piano, and video (or clarinet and piano or sop sax piano)

2000. May be performed with or without the video. MusicVision. Does not need audio projection. Subway sunset can be performed by either an oboe, clarinet, or bassoon and piano:

Bassoon and piano; also arranged for bass clarinet and piano

Flute and harp (also available for flute and string orchestra)

2 violins, viola, cello

2 violins, viola, cello and harp

violin, cello, piano

1992. Commissioned through Chamber Music America/Lila Wallace and the Port Jefferson Arts Council for the Guild Trio. Premiere: June 1992, Port Jefferson, New York. Recorded by the Guild Trio, CRI Released 1995.

Publisher: Lauren Keiser Music

Written for Timothy Eddy, cello, and Gilbert Kalish, piano

2 violins and marimba

1988. Commissioned and premiered by Musicians’ Accord, May 1988, Kaufmann Concert Hall, New York.

Publisher: Mostly Marimba, Alfred Music Publishing

Viola, horn, piano and percussion

2 violins, viola, and cello

1975. German premiere: Assman Quartet in Frankfurt, Germany , 1976. U.S. premiere: Fromm Concerts at Harvard University, 1977. Recorded by the Atlantic String Quartet (CRI SD 520). Winner of the Internationale Wettbewerb fur Komponistinnen, 1976 and an ISCM award, 1979.

Written for the Seminole Trombone Quartet, premiered May 2016, Weill at Carnegie Hall.

Resilient Earth, includes Seven Preludes for piano and Four Caprices for solo violin.

It was composed between April 2020 and February 2022.

for piano

A Co-Commission by Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center for Gilbert Kalish, premiered April 2015

Publisher: Argenta Music

“The music has a purely expressive quality, with a rocking bluesy, harmonic motion. “ New York Classical Review

1991. Commissioned by the Heckscher Museum, Huntington, NY for the Exhibit: “Baudelaire: The Poet and his Painters.” European premiere: 1992, Alexander Paley, piano, Camargo Foundation, Cassis, France, American premiere: Heckscher Museum, 1993, Gilbert Kalish. Recorded by Gilbert Kalish, CRI (1995). Also recorded by Alexander Paley, Naxos, and Tanya Bannister, Albany Records

Publisher: Lauren Keiser Music

1989. Adaptation of aria from opera, THE THIEF OF LOVE. Written in memory of Frederick Ewen and premiered by S. Silver, October 1989, Manhattan School of Music.

for piano

1980. Commissioned by Claudia Stevens in honor of Copland’s 80th birthday. Premiere: National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, 1981. Recorded by Nanette Solomon Kaplan, Leonarda Recordings, 1998.

Publisher: Lauren Keiser Music

Commissioned and premiered by David Hoose at the American Acedemy in Rome Spring 1979.

 If Trees Could Talk is a 14 minute vocal ensemble work about trees and our relationship to them – how we as humans both abuse and revere them – and how they give us everything we need to live.

Three Songs for Diane Kalish, in memorium. Texts by Shakespeare, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Khalil Gibran.

Premiered by Dawn Upshaw and Gilbert Kalish on the Resonant Bodies Festival, Merkin Hall, September, 2015, NYC.

“Richly melismatic and lyrical”, The Boston Globe

“To set Shakespeare’s verse without getting in the way of its natural musicality is a difficult proposition for any composer, yet the first piece “O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright,” taken from a passage in Romeo and Juliet, somehow managed to expand on the verse without obscuring it. Using an immense vocabulary of dynamic shifts, Silver’s music, as sung by Upshaw, brought about an intense evocation of how it feels to be awestruck by the overwhelming, inherently beautiful sight of one’s beloved. The second song, a setting of a sonnet by St. Vincent Millay, struck an elegant balance between textual expression and illumination, while the third, on a text by Gibran, was pure spiritual rhapsody—Upshaw’s tone embodied pure light, enveloping and enthralling with its tender vibrancy.” www.theclassicalscene

Dawn Upshaw and Gilbert Kalish perform O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! From Sheila’s new CD album release, Beauty Intolerable: Songs of Sheila Silver Albany Records. TROY 1854-55

14 songs for soprano/mezzo-soprano and piano

Premiered May 2013 premiere by Lauren Flanigan, soprano, and Deanne Meek, mezzo-soprano, and Risa Renae Harman, soprano. With Tyne Daly and Tandy Cronyn, recitation. Developed with the support of American Opera Projects and the Edna St. Vincent Millay Society.

Publisher: Argenta Music

Three Songs for Michael Dash in memorium
for baritone and piano

A Setting of “Canto XXXIX” by Ezra Pound

A Cycle of Six Songs on Fragments from Sappho. (also for voice and orchestra – see orchestra above)

1978. Commissioned by the Radcliffe Institute and premiered there May,1978 by Karen Komar, soprano, and Sheila Silver, piano .

Antiphonal choirs and piano

SATB a capella

SATB a cappella

Text: When Daisies Pied by Shakespeare

1981. Premiere: New York Motet Choir, Carnegie Recital Hall,New York, 1982. Winner of NY Motet Choir Competition, 1981.