ARTFUL artist Sam Silverman.

Artist & composer.

Sam Silverman is an Abstract Expressionist artist and composer of Contemporary Classical music.

Sam fondly remembers going to Severance Hall to hear the Cleveland Orchestra throughout his childhood. He would close my eyes and imagine shapes and colors moving to the music. It was remarkable how different sounds would suggest different visual patterns; each piece seemed to inspire its very own world of sound.

Growing up he drew often. His earliest memories are of drawing pictures with his older brother. Early on, he would make illustrated story books, with his own original cartoon characters and later in childhood, he imagined his own mythological worlds, complete with drawings of whimsical creatures and fantastical lands. As he matured, his style became more abstract. Before he even learned a musical instrument, his designs were linked with sound.

It was at the age of seven when Sam first began learning to play the piano, and at the age of thirteen, he began composing classical music. Sam recalls sitting at the piano, looking for patterns in the notes. Different combinations of harmonies seemed to cause him to imagine corresponding colors, and different rhythms seemed to suggest shapes. Later in life, he would discover that these connections are called synesthesia. These associations have been very useful towards composing piano compositions, and his style of my compositions have evolved over the years until he eventually found his own sound. Sam has written many pieces for solo piano, and his original pieces have been performed by professional pianists, including a concert at the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage. His orchestral compositions have also been performed twice in concert by the Cleveland Chamber Symphony.

Sam’s current style of pen and ink has evolved significantly and has quickly become his signature style. Over the past several years, his focus has been on creating colorful patterns to music, and his drawings merge his musical vision with his clean and precise shapes. He calls these designs “sound-worlds”. The subject matter of these “sound-worlds” ranges from classical music to different genres of rock and jazz. He also creates designs based off of his own compositions. One can nearly hear the music when observing these pieces. His artistic process is mostly intuitive and he creates what he spontaneously feels. His art and music hold this in common: there is a strong sense of raw instinct in his creative decisions. All of Sam’s work is full of texture, rhythm and color.

Sound-Worlds:

My Adventures in Visualizing Music.

Sam’s new book, Sound-Worlds: My adventures in visualizing music, is a collection of artwork that is vividly, and abstractly, linked to the corresponding music. With this book he hopes to give the viewers a window into his creative process. Over the past several years, Sam’s artwork has taken him on a beautiful and wild adventure that he would like to share with everyone.

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