Imagine going into the recording studio to record a new CD without having ANY idea what you are going to play and record. This is how Silvard produced his latest CD, “Moment for Yourself”.
“When I am in the recording studio to Freeflow new music, I just focus, get into the “Flow,” and I just play what I feel coming through. I sort of become the instrument that lets itself be played without controlling what I play. After completing the recording sessions, I select the best pieces to be featured on the album.” Interestingly, Silvard can only replay those one-time compositions after learning how to play them – again. Silvard also freeflows pieces during his concerts, and did so for large television audiences as well.
For more information and music samples, see silvard.com
Get to know Silvard
Born in The Hague, The Netherlands, Silvard started playing piano at age 10. He soon began to compose pieces and arrange songs he heard on the radio, while still playing the classics. He moved to the USA at 18 to study his other passion, marine biology, at Coastal Carolina College in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where he also began playing the piano professionally in local hotels and restaurants.
Silvard continued his dual career path by performing around the Washington, D.C. area, while in graduate school working on his doctorate at The George Washington University. He conducted his research on his favorite animals, mollusks (seashells) at the Smithsonian Institution, which awarded him a Pre-Doctoral Fellowship. In 1989, he received his Ph.D. in Marine Biology. Since then, Silvard has upheld his two careers with a busy performance and recording schedule, while being employed in the Boston area (initially at the Harvard University’s Museum of Natural History, and subsequently at Boston College, where he taught in the Biology Department for 14 years. In 1991, he started his own record label, Musical Mollusk Recordings, now celebrating its 12th release. Silvard has sold over 150,000 (physical) CDs to his fans through retail stores, at concerts, through his website, and during his live appearances on the popular television network, QVC, which featured 1-2 hr live broadcasts of “The Music of Silvard” to its millions of viewers from 2000 until 2002, gaining Silvard national recognition.
Silvard’s music has been broadcasted on radio and satellite stations in the United States, Canada, France, Italy, Australia, Switzerland, Japan, The Netherlands and many more. Licensing deals with record labels (especially in Asia), and video and film production companies attest to the wide appeal for his music. He has given concerts in over 15 countries, with his largest audience ever of over 35,000 during a large event benefitting the Cancer Society, held in Providence, RI. Silvard’s music has had practical application too. Health care practitioners, including therapists, workshop coordinators, special education teachers, and physicians, such as psychiatrists, dentists and teachers, have all found his music of great benefit to their patients, clients and students. Surgeons use it in the OR and ER. A Belgian psychiatrist specializing in trauma has conducted scientific studies with Silvard’s music and uses his music in his practice and for international workshops.
Silvard’s first Freeflow CD, Postcard from Cape Cod, reached #6 on the NAV charts in 2000; his second Freeflow CD, Touched by the Sea, reached #1 for two months in 2003; and one of his CDs featuring “regular” compositions, Life Is Grand, reached #5 in 2007. The latter album was also nominated for a NAR 2007 Lifestyle Music Award for Best Instrumental Album. Silvard’s music receives over 500,000 spins on Pandora per week.
Press release by Ed & Stacey Bonk, LAZZ Promotions