Alan Silvestri is an American composer and conductor best known for his film and television scores. He has worked closely throughout his career with director Robert Zemeckis, composing music for all his feature films which include Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump, Cast Away, and Polar Express. Silvestri was born in New York City in 1950, and grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey. He attended Berklee College of Music for two years before moving to Los Angeles to pursue his career as a musician. He began as a session guitarist for low-budget action films and caught his first break as a composer in 1978 for the TV series CHiPS.
After meeting film director Robert Zemeckis, the two began to work closely together. In addition to his composing work for Zemeckis, Silvestri has notably composed the score for four Marvel Cinematic Universe films, The Mummy Returns, Van Helsing, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, and the science documentary series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey. In 2020, Back to the Future: The Musical premiered, with Silvestri using songs from the original film as well as composing new material for the musical.
Silvestri has received two Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations (Best Original Score for Forrest Gump and Best Original Song for “Believe” on The Polar Express soundtrack). In 1995, Silvestri received an Honorary Doctorate from his alma mater, Berklee College of Music. Silvestri has also received a total of 9 Grammy Award nominations, and has won two awards (Best Song Written for a Motion Picture for “Believe” from The Polar Express, and Best Instrumental Composition for the credits of Cast Away). Silvestri has won two Emmy awards for his compositions in *Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey. *
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