Born in Brooklyn, New York, Phillip
studied with Katja Andy and Leonard Shure at the New England Conservatory
of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, where he earned the degrees of Bachelor
and Master of Music cum laude. He also earned the degree of Doctor of
Musical Arts from the University of Washington for his research into the
music of Ignaz Moscheles. Along with a substantial number of performances,
recordings and broadcasts for national radio in the United States,
Britain, Israel, Europe and Scandinavia, Phillip has recorded several
Compact Discs for the Koch/Schwann label. These include a recital of
German Romantic Lieder with the Israeli soprano Cilla Grossmeyer, and a
recording of 20th century Russian piano trios as a member of the
Rachmaninov Trio.
Over the past decade Phillip Silver
has, in addition to his performing and teaching career, carried out
research on music and musicians caught up in the Holocaust. He has
presented his findings in the form of lectures and recitals at such
diverse venues as the 10th International Festival of Jewish
Music and Culture in London, England, Napier University in Edinburgh,
Scotland, the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow,
Scotland, Colby College in Waterville, ME, MacAlester College in St.
Paul, MN, St. Michael’s College in Burlington, VT, and Johannes Gutenburg
University in Mainz, Germany.
Prior to his joining the faculty of
the School of Performing Arts at the University of Maine in Orono, Phillip
Silver had been on the faculties of Glasgow University, Strathclyde
University, and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow,
Scotland.
Phillip
Silver is an internationally acclaimed musician. The Frankfurter Rundschau
described his playing as "virtuosic," HaAretz commented upon his "...superb
technical ability that enthralled the audience with melody, lyricism and
poetry," while the Boston Globe called him "an international
collaborative pianist of the first rank," and the Jerusalem Post
described him as "a superb accompanist whose work is marked by
sensitivity, felicity of style and an inborn musicianship which unerringly
directs him to the most appropriate musical gesture."