Alan Silvestri

Alan Silvestri, one of the most prolific and celebrated film composers in Hollywood, credits his years at Berklee College of Music as the impetus for his career. Life at Berklee in the late 1960s and early 1970s, he said in an interview, “was just filled with the greatest living talent in the jazz world. ... You were living in that environment and receiving as much by osmosis as by direct teaching. It had a huge impact.”

Silvestri has scored such films as Forrest Gump, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Contact, The Polar Express, and Captain America: The First Avenger, among many others, earning Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations, as well as three Grammys along the way. Born in New York City, he grew up in New Jersey, and as a high school student attended a summer session at Berklee, where he resolved to be a jazz guitarist. After two years at Berklee and a short stint performing, he moved to Southern California, where he was asked to score a film because of a mix-up. After studying a book on the subject overnight, he scored The Doberman Gang, about a gang of dogs who rob banks, and he has been in the business ever since. Known for his melodic rhythm and ability to match music to dramatic excitement, he has scored everything from children’s movies (Stuart Little, Night at the Museum) to action films (Predator, Young Guns II) to romantic and dramatic films (Father of the Bride series, What Women Want) to dramas (Flight).

Along with a still-busy career, Silvestri and his family own Silvestri Vineyards on California’s central coast, where they live. Through this venture, he honors his Italian heritage and its love for good food and wine.