THE BOOKS BY ROBERT SILVERMAN─A Prize-Winning Concert Pianist
Exploring Music and History
BIO
Robert Silverman is a prize-winning concert pianist. He holds a DMA from Eastman School of Music and was a faculty member of the University of British Columbia School of Music for thirty years; he served as Director of the school for five years. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters in 2004.
In 2013, Silverman was named to the Order of Canada and is the first winner of the Paul de Hueck and Norman Walford Career Achievement Award for Keyboard Artistry, administered by the Ontario Arts Council Foundation. He is frequently heard on the CBC English and French radio network; a Steinway artist, he has recorded for EMI, Stereophile, Marquis Classics, Orpheum Masters, and CBC Records.[ALDJ(1.1]
Schumann, Vienna, and the Cat is his second book. His first book, Bach's Sonic Tapestry: The Well-Tempered Clavier of 1722, was published in 2022 (FriesenPress).
Silverman lives in Vancouver with his wife, Ellen. You can follow him at: robert-silverman.org
BOOKS BY ROBERT SILVERMAN
ABOUT THE BOOK
Robert Schumann—one of the most imaginative figures of the Romantic era—and concert pianist Robert Silverman: in both lives, brief but psychologically complex sojourns in Vienna became decisive crucibles, testing ambition against reality and shaping the emergence of fully formed artistic identities.
Their two stories unfold in counterpoint in Schumann, Vienna, and the Cat, illuminating one another across time. In the first half of the book, Silverman traces his own artistic formation in Montreal to his decisive years of study in Vienna (1961–1963). Interwoven with this personal narrative is the parallel story of Robert Schumann, whose formative struggles and ambitions are followed to the moment he, too, left Vienna in 1839. The second half of the book is devoted to extended essays on Schumann’s Kreisleriana, Op. 16, and Humoreske, Op. 20—works born of those Viennese years and examined here through historical context, literary influence, and performance insight. The result is neither conventional biography, memoir, nor purely technical analysis, but a meditation in two voices on artistic maturity, self-scrutiny, and the long journey toward integration.
Schumann, Vienna, and the Cat offers readers—especially emerging classical musicians—a model of how talent is shaped through uncertainty, risk, and self-examination rather than immediate mastery. At the same time, it invites older readers to look back on their own formative years with renewed understanding, recognizing that maturity often emerges from precisely the turbulence that once seemed misguided or excessive.
ABOUT THE BOOK
There is a reason why good teachers insist their pupils study Bach. Every note counts as with no other composer.
I’ve played some Bach in my time . . . but it is fair to say that he has never been front and centre in my repertoire. Until now . . .
When his 2020-2021 season was cancelled due to the pandemic, distinguished pianist Robert Silverman decided to embark on a mega-project—the entire first volume of Johann Sebastian Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier, one of the finest monuments of keyboard repertoire in the Western world.
Bach’s Sonic Tapestry—The Well-Tempered Clavier of 1722 traces the author’s two-year journey as he studied, learned, performed, taught, and recorded the forty-eight compositions that he came to revere.
Written in an informal yet informative manner and sprinkled with moments of lightheartedness, this reader-friendly study is comprised of three segments:
Part I – Prelude: For Bach enthusiasts or those who have tried without success to enjoy his music, this section introduces various facets of the music’s background.
Part II – Interlude: The author’s answers to questions posed by piano students and teachers at various recitals and workshops over the years.
Part III — Fugue: Delves deeper into the critical issues the author has learned about each piece, including essential aspects for performers to consider when studying or interpreting them.
Bach’s Sonic Tapestry—The Well-Tempered Clavier of 1722 will help readers appreciate this cornerstone of classical music and guide those learning to play these astonishing twenty-four preludes and fugues.
