Alan Silvestri

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**Alan Anthony Silvestri** (born March 26, 1950) is an American composer and conductor of film and television scores. His credits include the *Back to the Future* film series, *Predator*, *Forrest Gump*, *Who Framed Roger Rabbit*, *The Polar Express*, *The Abyss*, and several Marvel Cinematic Universe films, including many of the *Avengers* films. He is a two-time Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominee, and a three-time Saturn Award and two-time Primetime Emmy Award recipient.

## Early life and education

Silvestri's grandparents emigrated in 1909 from the Italian town of Castell'Alfero, and settled in Teaneck, New Jersey. He grew up in Teaneck, and graduated in 1968 from Teaneck High School. He went to Berklee College of Music for two years. Silvestri was a drummer for a short time in 1966 with Teaneck-based rock band The Herd.

## Career

Silvestri started his film/television composing career in 1972 at age 21 composing the score for the low-budget action film *The Doberman Gang*.

From 1978 to 1983, Silvestri served as the main composer for the television series *CHiPs*, writing music for 95 of the show's 139 episodes.

Silvestri met film director Robert Zemeckis when the two worked together on Zemeckis's film *Romancing the Stone* (1984). Since then, Silvestri has composed the music for all of Zemeckis's movies, including the *Back to the Future* trilogy (1985–1990), *Who Framed Roger Rabbit* (1988), *Death Becomes Her* (1992), *Forrest Gump* (1994), *Contact* (1997), *Cast Away* (2000), *The Polar Express* (2004), *Beowulf* (2007), *A Christmas Carol* (2009), *Flight* (2012), and *The Walk* (2015).

In 1989, Silvestri composed the score for the James Cameron-directed film *The Abyss*. Since 2001, Silvestri has also collaborated regularly with director Stephen Sommers, scoring the films *The Mummy Returns* (2001), *Van Helsing* (2004), and *G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra* (2009).

Silvestri has composed the scores for four Marvel Cinematic Universe films: *Captain America: The First Avenger* (2011), *The Avengers* (2012), *Avengers: Infinity War* (2018), and *Avengers: Endgame* (2019). Silvestri's themes and motifs from those films have been referenced and reprised by other composers in multiple other MCU films.

Silvestri has also composed music for television series, including *T. J. Hooker* (one episode), *Starsky & Hutch* (three episodes), *Tales from the Crypt* (seven episodes). In 2014, he composed the award-winning music for the science documentary series *Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey*. He will be writing new songs with Glen Ballard for the upcoming live-action film adaptation of Disney's *Pinocchio*.

## Personal life

Silvestri and his wife Sandra own a vineyard, Silvestri Vineyards, located in Carmel Valley, California. He has a daughter and two sons and has a license to fly his own jet plane.

## Awards

Silvestri has received two Academy Award nominations, one for Best Original Score for *Forrest Gump* (1994) and one for Best Original Song for "Believe" on *The Polar Express* soundtrack. He also received two Golden Globe nominations: Best Score for *Forrest Gump* and Best Song for *The Polar Express*.

Silvestri was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music in 1995.

He has also received nine Grammy Award nominations, winning two awards – Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media, for "Believe" from *The Polar Express* in 2004 and Best Instrumental Composition, for "Cast Away End Credits" from Cast Away in 2002. His other nominations were for Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or a Television Special and Best Instrumental Composition, for Back to the Future in 1985, Best Album of Original Instrumental Background Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television, for Who Framed Roger Rabbit in 1988, Best Instrumental Composition, for "Who Framed Roger Rabbit Suite" in 1989, Best Pop Instrumental Performance, for "I'm Forrest...Forrest Gump (The Feather Theme)" in 1994, Best Instrumental Composition, for Avengers: Infinity War in 2018 and Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media, for Avengers: Endgame in 2019. During the 2005 Grammy Awards, Josh Groban performed "Believe".

He has won two Emmys, both for *Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey* – Outstanding Main Title Theme Music and Outstanding Music Composition for a Series for the episode "Standing Up in the Milky Way".

He has won the Saturn Award for Best Music three times, for his scores for *Predator* (1987), *Back to the Future Part III* (1989/90) and *Van Helsing* (2004).

On September 23, 2011, he was awarded with the Max Steiner Film Music Achievement Award by the City of Vienna at the yearly film music gala concert Hollywood in Vienna.

## References

1. ↑ Meredith May, "Alan Silvestri pairs music with wine", *SFGate* (June 7, 2013).
2. ↑ Subscribe to Ali A ASCAP Henry Mancini Award, ASCAP. Accessed October 21, 2008. Manhattan-born and Teaneck, New Jersey-bred, Silvestri attended Boston's prestigious Berklee College of Music before joining a Las Vegas band as a guitarist."
3. ↑ Coutros, Evonne. "The Drummer Whom *Gump* Marches To", *The Record (Bergen County)*, March 26, 1995. Accessed October 21, 2008. "Nearly three decades after Alan Silvestri drummed out beats for the Teaneck High School band, he's hoping to march to the podium Monday night to collect an Oscar."
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5. ↑ **Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".**. Silvestrivineyards.com. Retrieved on May 2, 2012.
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## External links

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* Alan Silvestri at Soundtrackguide.net
* Castell'Alfero (Italy) country of Asti of which it is City Honorarium
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