Jeffrey Silverman Snuck Into Hollywood Scoring Sessions Then Helped Orchestrate Yanni’s Biggest Show

Jeffrey Silverman snuck into Hollywood film scoring sessions as a teenager. 

Years later, he would go on to orchestrate some of the most iconic concert productions of the 1990s, including Yanni’s Live at the Acropolis and John Tesh’s Live at Red Rocks. 

In this conversation, we talk about what orchestration actually means, how he built a career across Broadway, film, and television, and the unexpected story of how he sold more than 100,000 records under the pseudonym David Raintree. 

We also get into what it’s really like working with world-class musicians, and the one lesson he learned watching them up close. 

About the Podcast: Beyond the Notes is a podcast about the people behind the music — composers, performers, and creators — and how they think about their craft. 

Learn more about Jeffrey on his website: https://jeffreysilvermanmusic.com/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I would get in my car, drive over there at get there at 8 30 in the morning, this the downbeat was at nine, and I would say to the guard, Um, I'm in the orchestra.

SPEAKER_01 0:09

And I go, that's it, they let me in. That's how composer Jeffrey Silverman used to sneak into Hollywood film scoring sessions. He was still in high school. Inside those rooms were 90 musicians, full orchestras recording music for films. Jeffrey would quietly pull up a chair and watch. But even then, he already knew what he wanted to do. Ever since I was a little boy, all he wanted to do was compose. That obsession eventually led him to a career that spans 37 films and 21 television projects, with music heard across networks like Fox, AE, MTV, DLC, and the History Channel. He would conduct on Broadway, including the original production of Le Miz, write four musicals produced in New York, and contribute to recording projects that earned three platinum records. And in the 1990s, his orchestration helped shape two of the most iconic productions of the New Age era, Yanni's Live at the Acropolis and John Tesh's Live at Red Rocks. But when Jeffrey talks about those experiences, the focus isn't celebrity.

SPEAKER_00 1:15

As opposed to being intimidated, it was so much fun. It was so much fun to interact with another musician at a at a very high level and get this feedback and give and throw it back into the park and then he'll throw it back. So now it was up to joy.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

In this conversation, Jeffrey explains what orchestration actually means, how he sold more than a hundred thousand records under the pseudonym David Raintree, and how his work as a composer has evolved into the orchestral music he's writing today, including one lesson he learned watching great artists build their careers up close.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

He took responsibility for everything. He took responsibility anything that happened, good or bad, he took responsibility for. And why the most important advice he gives young composers is surprisingly simple. Do your best and don't be afraid to fail. Everybody's going to fail at some point of something. Just do your best and just keep going.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

I'm Von Veneer. My guest today is Jeffrey Silverman, and this is Beyond the Notes. Jeffrey, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

Thank you, Von. It's a pleasure to be here. I'm so glad you got in touch with me.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

Thank you, yes. I'm I'm very excited. So uh in the late 80s, you were working on Ley Miz on Broadway. And, you know, towards the early 90s, uh you ended up working with Yanni and John Tesch, who were just these huge figures at the time. So how did that come about? How did you meet with them and get connected with those guys in the first place?

SPEAKER_00 2:41

So initially I went to New York because I had a show that was optioned, and then I had four shows produced in New York. None of them made money, but they are owed, but the reviews were fine, but they didn't make money, so I found my way. After my fourth show closed, I was literally literally walking down Broadway and I saw the director of my first show. And he said, I'm starting a Broadway show tomorrow. And I know you don't play professionally, piano professionally, but there's a place, a special place for a pianist in this that's going to be working with the star of the show while while the show is being performed. And he said, I think it might be a good fit. So why don't you come tomorrow, meet this person, meet the star? And if she likes, she got a job. So literally, I just not played piano professionally, really. The next day I was hired for the show, and during this show, um, they asked me to per to conduct, and I ended up conducting something of that show. And then from there I went to Lay Miz. And so I was working at Lay Miz as a conductor, even though I was a composer, but it was uh it was something important. I had a baby and and and it was a great opportunity. I don't want to dis dismiss it in any way because it was the most popular show in the world at the time. So I'm working on this show and I'm conducting, and I have a friend of mine who was uh um a really wonderful musician named John Reinheim, and he gave me a call like a year and a half until they miss, and he said, you know, there's this there's this guy from Greece, and he's like a piano player, and he wants to do the you know, wants to do an uh record, he's gonna do a sh a show with the Dallas Symphony, and they need an orchestrator. Do you want and so he said, Do you want to do it with me? I said, Well, let's meet him. So we met him, and he was super nice, super nice, and so musical, and we got along really great, and that's how we ended up working with Yanni. Um we first did the Dallas Symphony, he did a um concert of his works. We took his music from his early New Age records and orchestrated them, and um after the Dallas, then he ended up going up and up and up and up until he finally got to you know Acropolis. Yeah. So um that's sort of how I just by chance I met Yanni. And then so John and then regarding John Tesh, John was a keyboard in Yanni's player, in Yanni's band. Uh-huh. So I met John, we became friendly, then he also did Red Rock, and so myself and John Reinheimer also did some orchestrations for that. So that's how I got into that world.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

It was just I sort of fell into the world. You know, you never know who you're gonna meet. That's the extraordinary thing in this business. You just don't know.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

Yeah. It's amazing. So, first of all, for those in the audience who don't know, um, what is what does orchestration mean um, you know, with performances like that, and and you know, what what did the job involve for you?

SPEAKER_00 5:36

That is such a deep question. So for some composers who are working with orchestrator, it means literally giving them a melodic idea with with some indication, Woodwin strings, give me a second line, here's a hit that's a picture for you know, either for um film or for TV. It can be as just as sparse as that. And sometimes, like in case of Yanni, um he really wanted he wanted expansive orchestral sound from his own synth performances. So he already had secondary ideas, you know, he would already have like a chowl idea. Yeah, so he, you know, he already had a lot of interesting things going on. So working with Yanning on those orchestrations, we already had a lot of material to work with. And so what is up to us to decide colors, things like that, you know, whether it's strings, wood, winds, brass, and of course add, so the orchestra will give that that depth and that warmth that only a real orchestra can give to his music.

SPEAKER_01 6:39

When you were working on those uh those orchestrations um with you know these these big names like Yanni and John Tesh, did you did you know at the time that these were gonna be you know huge things and that these guys were gonna were gonna blow up and be big stars? No.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

No, but um you know there was a sense you know whether if you like Yanni's music, you don't like music, Yanni's music, there's no question that it's extremely musical. He's extremely musical, he's a brilliant musician, he's absolutely a brilliant musician. So um I knew I was working with somebody special, and also he's working at a time when he was actually kind of creating a sound that later became New Age. I mean, there was Wyndham Hill that had this very you know soft music, you know, that very light piano, and then there was Yanni who had all this drama and it was still considered New Age. And so um as we as Yanni, you know, went up this ladder step by step, we saw something great was beginning to happen, you know, and and and he was so responsible and so on top of it. That's one of the things. He was not just a terrific musician and talented composer and wonderful pianist, but he's also um a very hard worker and took responsibility and planned everything out, made sure he had a great team. He was all all hands-on all the time, but never like never you never felt strangler or anything, just that this person was controlling, he knew what he wanted, and he was articulate in expressing it. Yeah. And John too. I I didn't work as much with John, but John Teshed is all the same thing, super nice people, talented, and very clear in what they wanted. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:25

Was it was there ever like, you know, you mentioned like Lame Is being the most famous show in the world at the time, and and you know, you're working with Yanni and who's, you know, starting to be on the up. Did that ever like make you nervous? Or, you know, did you ever like feel the pressure of of like bearing this, you know, very famous project or person at the time?

SPEAKER_00 8:49

So you're asking such interesting questions, and I have to be honest with you, because ever since I was a little boy, all I wanted to do was compose. That's all I wanted to do was compose. So anything outside of that world was was not part of my orbit. So if I met somebody famous, it's cool. It's like you meet a famous doctor, it's cool. You meet a famous, another composer, famous pianist. So, no, I mean, that I think that was one of the things that was really um fortunate with me. In other words, I had come to New York as a composer, I had four shows as a composer, it didn't work out financially. So now I'm there to serve someone else, and I'm gonna serve that person. But there's no, and and I there was no sense of like, oh my gosh, who am I? You know, I'm still doing with somebody so great. But it's another talented artist, and I'm so happy to be working with another talented artist. That's what I felt. Um, so there was there was not a sense of, oh I mean, you know, and Le Mare is working with the greatest people at the time in the world, the producers and you know, uh Karen McIntosh and Dolid Weber, and yeah, just a monstrous, a monstrously gifted, you know, headliners for LeMairs, just stupendous talents, and everyone was so nice and so great. It was just a thrill to be with them. Same thing, Yanni, you know, uh just a thrill. As opposed to being intimidated, it was so much fun. It was so much fun to to interact with another musician at a at a very high level and get this feedback and get and throw it back into the park and then he'll throw it back. So no, it was up to the joy. It was a joy.

SPEAKER_01 10:21

So I mean it it sounds like then the just the the love of the the the activity and the the art is is what drove you and and you didn't really think about the stakes or you know who was watching in a sense. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 10:37

Like you know, when you're in the mood, when you're in that place, you know, like you're just in that place and you're not thinking about all the critical things, everything, you're just in that place, and that's what Le Miz was like for me. Same thing with working with Yanni and other people. It was like just being in that place and and trying to make something special happen and doing your best, you know, and allowing they give you the room to do your best.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

Yeah. So I mean, on the ground, beyond just the the professional side of things, what was it like to just hang out with those guys, you know, Yanni and and John Tesh? Uh just what what was the break time like? Was Yanni giving like hair hair tips to people or or John Tesh like playing basketball? Like who was what what was it?

SPEAKER_00 11:21

It's like you and I right now. You know, talking about uh we just talk about all kinds of things, food or whatever it is, and then his ideas, music, and everything. So it was it's there's nothing sensational I could share with you regarding these two these two men. They're just uh very down to earth and very centered. Very centered. Hmm.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

Yeah. I guess I guess just at the end of the day, everyone's everyone's human, no matter how famous or or well known or iconic you are.

SPEAKER_00 11:54

Right. There's a gamut, uh there's a whole you know range of human behaviors. Some people are really crazy, some people are very timid, and some people a lot of people are very talented. So, you know, these guys are very in the center. At least that's my that was my experience.

SPEAKER_01 12:07

Yeah. Well, well, how cool. I mean, it sounds like uh, you know, especially at that point in your career, just like a totally fun, interesting, you know, different adventure for you. Is that what it felt like? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 12:21

I never dreamed because I was in Los Angeles and I'd done a couple of pictures, and then the person I was working with, who's a very who was a very talented lyricist, Walter Willison, um, got this opportunity to go to New York, he and I together, and to move to New York, and then suddenly within three weeks have a show produced. All I wanted to do was write music for movies. But I thought, what the heck? I was young. And so now I'm moving to New York within one week. All these things happened so quickly for me, as we started with Rogers Hammers, sign with Chapel Publishing, with um ICM talent agency. I mean, it's happened so fast in New York. So I moved to New York. So um it was the kind of thing that um I I it just everything once I was in New York, it was a free-for-all. I had no idea what's gonna happen next. And that's sort of very much what it was like my 10 years there. I had no idea what's gonna happen next. And thank God everything, not good things happened. You know, it was all really, really super nice things. So I can I tell you one thing that I think would be interesting to share with the audience um because Yanni was so successful, I will tell you that he had a trait that's really a beautiful trait. He took responsibility, and I learned this from him too, watching him, for everything he did. So, in other words, he's now he's building his dream step by step, unlike anybody who's building a dream step by step, there's gonna be a lot of ups and downs. Some things are gonna work, some things are not going to work at all. He took responsibility for everything. He took responsibility, anything that happened, good or bad, he took responsibility for. He never pointed his finger, uh he never yelled, he he whatever happened, he learned from it, and then he took the next next step up. And I think that's a marvelous um character trait to develop, to always take responsibility for whatever your your share of, you know, for what you're doing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:17

So is that um something that's especially useful in in like a group setting when you're working, you know, collaborating and working with other musicians, or just what you know, what what does that look like on the day-to-day?

SPEAKER_00 14:30

That's a great, that's a great answer. It means um whether collab everyone's collaborating on your project or you're collaborating with somebody on somebody else's project. It's that trait of being constant and being there to serve at the end of the day, even if it's your own project, because you know, if you're gonna stop on everybody, uh no one's gonna be comfortable, no one's gonna be able to do their best work. If you want to make, if you're gonna make the if it is your project, you want to make everyone feel they're so important, and they are. Everyone involved in your music is important in making your music come to life. And and so it's a very good question you're asking. You to be to have always a sense that um there's another human being there. Because I've seen just the opposite. I've seen really, you know, uh unfortunately, really terrible behavior as well. Um and you get a lot more with good behavior, you know, with treating people as as human beings and considering how would I feel, you know, on the other end, right?

SPEAKER_01 15:28

Yeah, absolutely. So, how did it all get started for you? Do you remember your your first days on on you know, in music and in on an instrument?

SPEAKER_00 15:38

Right. So I yeah, so when I was seven years old, my parents bought a somer upright, and um, they it was moved into the house sometime in uh August when I was seven. And the piano movers pulled the top of the piano off and exposed the the keys, and I was this little kid, and I went over. I mean, we had a piano right now, and I went over and I went like this. And Vaughn, it was like I'd been living in a world that was black and white, and suddenly it's such a cliche, but that's the best I can give you is that suddenly my full my world was 3D full of color. It was just experience. I was sat I made up just standing there and listening to that sound, and I fell in love with it. And that was my first experience with the piano. Then I took, you know, taking piano lessons, and um and then I when I was in high school, I was always writing, writing, and I was um, you know, it when I grew up, security wasn't what it was like today in the studios. So literally I would be in high school and I'd be writing songs. I would leave because I grew up in Long Beach, I'd get in my car, drive to Hollywood, book a session with a publisher, AM, or whoever, you know, the big public Warner Brothers, Universal. You could do that. You'd be an unknown, 15, 16-year-old unknown. They wanted to hear your song. So you could go and play your songs. We didn't have to have an agent, you have a lawyer, and all these other things recognized today like you do it today. It was very open. Everybody was hungry to hear young songwriters. So I was doing that already. And the other cool thing that I was doing, I don't know if you could still do this today, but there's a um there's an industry paper called The Hollywood Reporter. Have you ever heard of it? The Hollywood Reporter?

SPEAKER_01 17:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:20

So in it they would list the recordings of that were happening, the score recordings, music recordings that were happening in the that week. So I would see them. And there would be um, like, I don't know if you knew John Barry, there would be all these big film composers at the time. They would be scoring a picture at uh the Burbank Studios. So I would get in my car, drive over there at get there at 8:30 in the morning. This the downbeat was at nine, and I would say to the guard, um, I'm in the orchestra. And I go, that's it, they let me in. And I would, you know, these are big scoring rooms, Vaughn. So you can get lost. You got 90 musicians, you got the composer, you got the whole big team there with the other. I mean, it's it's it's there's so many people, no one's looking at me. And I get a chair quietly off to the corner, and I was in high school, and I just listened to their scoring. And it's this big orchestra, beautiful, playing this gorgeous music, you know, what with the picture, because the screens, you know, when you're scoring, they have a big screen and you're scoring, and they would do a few takes. And that's where I spent a lot of my high school, you know, hockey hawking songs to publishers and going to recording sessions. So it was my blood to want to, you know, to want to write music for the picture. And to get back to your original question was how did it be all begin? So in high school, I took lessons with private lessons with a composer named Ernest Gold. And again, if you look him up, you'll see that he won Academy Awards. He did a lot of big pictures in the Ship of Fools, he did uh Exodus, he won an Academy Award for Exodus, um which was a big picture um at the time, and he was much older then. And I met him, and so I I got to study composition with him. And then my real term was when I went to UCLA. UCLA, I originally I was a pre-med with a minor in music. My parents wanted to be a doctor, can I tell you? So I was there, and um my um my composition teacher, my second year at UCLA, got a call from the studio um to score a small picture. And so he took the job and he asked me to be his assistant. His guy, his name is Paul Chihara. He's a really wonderful composer. So um, that's how I got into pictures. That year, when he began, we did, I think, two feature films and we did three TV movies. So here I never had any experience doing that, just thrown into, you know, thrown into the cauldron, and you know, you survive. Um, here I was. I didn't really know anything about writing music picture. I loved it. And yeah, I spent years looking and listening, but then suddenly you're gonna do it right. Could you have yeah, remember in those days, I'm talking about like um the 1970s. Yeah, people were alive in the 1970s, and they did have electricity in the 1970s. So um they did not have uh, you know, like us uh computers and that you could watch pictures and sync music to picture, you know, you didn't have something at home. What you had was you had a script and you had a breakdown of the click, the the tempo, you know, that you could kind of figure out the way you're how many beats could be per each section of that scene. So my first scene was probably giving me this little scene, it was a one-minute scene, and it featured us, and all it was was a solo flute. It was a contemplative moment in the picture. The movie is uh I Never Promised You Rose Garden, I think it was, and that he said, he said, you know, something just quiet with the flute. So he comes back 20 minutes later, 25 minutes later, and I've written I've written three notes. Now this I'm I'm like this guy going all over the place musically. I can write, I can improvise a million things, but meanwhile, I am frozen. It's a solo flute, one minute's worth of music, and I have three minutes, three notes 25 minutes into into my time there. And he said, What is going on with you? He goes, one minute's worth of music. Just write a minute. You don't have to write a lot of notes because just the color of that flute is going to um is going to express an emotion. All you need. This something is simple, even slower, under dialogue. That's all you need. So you know, I didn't know anything, so I slowly you slowly picked up. I was lucky that I had somebody that I could that work with me and I was able to build my skills writing with music to picture.

SPEAKER_01 21:56

I think like with solo flute, on one hand, you don't have to write. that many notes, but it it seems it seems like if that's your first ever film scoring project and it's just one flute, that like that level of exposedness seems a little terrifying to me, just you know, hearing you talk about it.

SPEAKER_00 22:14

Well you hit it on the notes. Exactly. That's what I was thinking of hearing, this is my first piece of music. I gotta make it count. It's gotta be so great. And it you it has to be great when you're when you're when the theme is carrying the picture with the open you know, but not in a dialogue. It just has to be you know has to be um you know a support. The quiet support.

SPEAKER_01 22:34

But it also reminds me maybe of of a sort of interesting irony in your career I think where uh at a certain point you decided to start uh releasing music under the pseudonym David Raintree. So first of all I'm totally curious why David Raintree what what went into deciding the name? It's a very cute story.

SPEAKER_00 22:55

So I was doing a a B picture I do such a great I was scoring a picture and it was like I guess is it 90 it was like 94 nine I don't know whatever it was but I needed MIDI drums. I needed somebody to play midi drums at my studio so somebody said call this guy you know he's a good drummer he'll do so I called him he came over from my studio and he he did a great job on the things in the picture that I needed and then we're just schmoozing afterwards and remember this is the beginning of the new age you know piano everything was piano solo piano so he's telling me he goes you know there's this guy in the business he's like taking everybody surprise his name is David Ranger. He's got this he goes around the world he's playing for kings and queens and he's got this so play and he's because the guy's a comedian I didn't know that so he gave me this whole shtick with about David Rainetry at the end of it he starts laughing and goes I made it up and I stopped and I said his name was Alby I said Alby David Raintry that's a name for right now we can sell records let's make records under the name of David Raintree. This is a true story so this is what he says to me he says I have two friends hysterical I have two friends who are starting a record company they're what they're looking for somebody let's go meet them tomorrow I mean it's literally that's what it is next day we met two guys who be who are starting a a record company called Simplicity Records. They love the idea of this guy named David Raintree they get they made this whole fictitious thing about David and um we made a bunch of records and I think we made 10 11 12 records and I think altogether they almost like sold like 1000 records. They were in a in a niche market. So in the 90s there was a market called the gift shop market gift shop market and there were like um there were like 500 gift shops around the world around the United States and if you could get your record into like say 80% of them and one person buys your record every single day you can do the math how that adds up quickly and and that's it bec he became very successful in this niche market. And and people wrote me letters you know that's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 25:12

So what what did it do um for I don't know for your for your writing or just psychologically to be writing under this pseudonym okay so it it it actually wasn't writing it was um playing an arrangement he would the the producers asked for cover material so one album would be the music of you know in a new age sort of style of Andrew Weber that became really popular.

SPEAKER_00 25:39

Then there was Henry Main singing then there was George Gershwin then there all these different writers so we would do these albums um you know very new age you know sparse piano of of other famous music by other writers so it wasn't it was a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_01 25:56

It was a blast yeah it was a lot of fun as we wrap start to wrap up here I'd like to uh turn our attention just to uh your your most recent work and and what you've been doing today um so I have three little segments from some of your recent orchestral uh writing from pieces names Levant and Adagio for cello and strings and uh Mirage of the Red Pavilion so first of all very creative titles how what what was the inspiration and and what are you uh hoping to do with each of those projects?

SPEAKER_00 26:33

Great so the piece the one piece called Adagio my son plays cello um he's a working musician producer writer um and I initially wrote that as a piece for cello and orchestra and then I decided um to take you know to to do a synth mock-up with you know strings and that's what you're hearing. It it's not that that's the only that's not the only part of the piece but that's a segment a small segment of that piece. So that's the adagio is that um Levant is is actually just a series piece kind of series piece of music I just wrote for just to write something for piano orchestra which I've always wanted to do um and you're hearing a very small segment one little melodic area that's what Levant is it means the wind because there's a the opening theme says suggests the wind it's everything's tonal light work is so tonal you know it's like I love I love harmony and um so it's it's very straightforward. It might seem old fashioned even in a way but there is a there is now this um this journey back into tonight tonality. You know there are some serious composers who are really going back into just the beauty uh of of harmony and using and as opposed to being so eclectic all the time. Anyway off topic so the the leather thing uh Mirage of the red pavilion um I'm thinking of doing something special which I can't really share right now but it's a piece it's with video with music so I have this idea of this certain kind of story we're out of the different out of the desert floor this red pavilion occurs and and I'm in the process of working with some people with it and one of the main themes is um is is you'll hear one of the main themes from this this idea this musical idea okay wow all right well uh for our listeners I'd like to just play a a brief segment from each so we so we get an idea so I'll uh I'll play it now right so here's Levant I'll I'll play them all briefly.

SPEAKER_01 29:35

This is the uh Mirage of the Red Pavilion. Okay. And a abrupt end to the clip, but that's that's um uh that and then finally uh the adagious okay thank you with those obviously it to me at least it it has this very cinematic broad orchest orchestral feel but at the same time from what you were saying before it sounds like you're sort of trying to to do something new and and challenge yourself in a new way by by writing these pieces for piano and orchestra and everything like that. So what's that like for you at this point in in your career?

SPEAKER_00 32:26

Wow it's such a great again it's a great question because all my life all I wanted to do is write music for projects. I never wanted to write music for my just to write music. And then when I've sort of like you know my career slowed down then suddenly I had time in my hands and now I'm writing you know I'm the I'm basically writing music either generating my own project or just to write music because I have something a music they want to say so I'm I'm loving it and doing teaching too like teaching composition which I also love I have some really talented students. Um so between those I'm just I'm really I'm just in love with music and it's a joy I feel so I feel so blessed you know in a sense to be able to to be having be in a world with music you know and there's ups and downs e everybody has ups and downs and and you can't judge your musical creations based on ups and downs. You you judge your musical creations about how much it satisfies you. Unless you're working for you know if obviously you're working on a project you have an obligation for the project. But if you're doing all music just it's such a joy.

SPEAKER_01 33:34

So it it sounds like at the end of the day what it what it takes is just that passion and and that obsession and the willing to be willingness to be adventurous and to step back from time to time and and find out what happens.

SPEAKER_00 33:48

Do your best and don't be afraid to fail. Everybody's gonna fail at some point or something just do your best and and just keep going it's so important.

SPEAKER_01 33:57

Well thank you thank you so much Jeffrey it's been been quite a joy and and again it's there's there's a a a fantastic amount of wisdom here that I think we've just scratched the surface of from from you and your your journey as a musician and a composer.

SPEAKER_00 34:13

Well whatever it is I your questions are really really sharp and very good and um I really enjoyed the time with you thank you for the honor. Thank you very much