Noteworthy: Canadian Pianist, Pedagogue Robert Silverman

Over the years, Silverman has performed in concert halls around the world, and with orchestras led by John Eliot Gardiner, Neeme Jarvi, Kiril Kondrashin, Zdenek Macal, Seiji Ozawa and Gerard Schwarz. He has appeared with every major Canadian orchestra and performed with the BBC (London) Symphony, the Boston Pops, the Chicago Symphony, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic and the Sydney Symphony. 

The Canadian Encyclopedia noted that “after Silverman’s London recital, the Music and Musicians critic Bryce Morrison described him as ‘a player of formidable strength and mastery …his tonal resources are wonderfully rich and full…. Silverman’s magisterial command of both technique and idiom could hardly have been more convincing… here is a powerful, highly skilled orator of the keyboard, attributes not to be taken lightly in an age of so much impersonal expertise.’”

In his thirties, he began to teach more. He was artist-in-residence at Nazareth College in Rochester, NY; he also taught at the University of California in Santa Barbara from 1969-70 and at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee from 1970-73 before moving to Vancouver to join University of British Columbia as Professor of Music (Piano) in 1973, Silverman was the Director of UBC’s School of Music from 1991-95 and in 2004 received an honorary Doctorate of Letters from UBC, celebrating his 30-year tenure.   

In 2002, he was the artist-in-residence at the Koffler Centre of the Arts in Toronto. “My relationship was informal with no written contract.  I received an honorarium for one or two seasonal concerts. That association meant a lot to me; I was glad of the opportunity to maintain a visible presence in Toronto’s music life and to help the then Director of the Music Program, Adrienne Cohen, in her indefatigable efforts to enhance and enlarge classical music’s role at the Centre.   Although I’m not observant from a religious standpoint, I have always been keenly aware of my Jewish heritage and was pleased to be affiliated with an organization whose various programs were attuned to the Jewish community in its traditional sense,” he said.