Jason Silver

Biography

Jason Silver is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, specialising in piano, but also playing guitar, bass, drums, and other instruments. He has been a full-time professional musician since 1993, working with a range of highly-regarded studio session players, Canadian artists like Johnannes Linstead and Night Sun, and Broadway musicians in New York City, and has arranged and written music for the Kingston Symphony Orchestra, in Kingston, Ontario. Silver was influenced as a child by the...

Jason Silver is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, specialising in piano, but also playing guitar, bass, drums, and other instruments. He has been a full-time professional musician since 1993, working with a range of highly-regarded studio session players, Canadian artists like Johnannes Linstead and Night Sun, and Broadway musicians in New York City, and has arranged and written music for the Kingston Symphony Orchestra, in Kingston, Ontario.

Silver was influenced as a child by the music of his parents; bands like Blood, Sweat and Tears, Harry Chapin, and Tom T. Hall. He continued to grow musically as a young man by listening to Billy Joel, Simon & Garfunkel, The Eagles, Chicago, and tacky eighties synth-pop groups.

Today his main inspiration for both music and lyrics comes from groups like Chicago, U2, Sting, and Creed. He has performed across the United States and Canada but mainly plays local venues in Hamilton, Ontario. Silver records his own music in his home studio, and markets it online.

Silver was raised in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Originally self-taught on his family’s upright piano at the age of seven, Silver made his beginning singing and playing in the church choir. In fact, his music studies and spiritual approach led him to work as music director in churches across Canada and the United States.

Silver led his first band while still in his early teens, doing popular piano cover tunes from the eighties. He studied performance and music theory at Aldersgate College, playing in piano bars in the area. He travelled with the college performance group for three years before graduating with a Bachelor's Degree. From there he took a position arranging for vocal and instrumental groups at Lakeview Church for two years, and Westgate Church for a year, both in Saskatoon, Canada.

From there he moved to Northern New Jersey, where he performed with musicians from New York City, and Paterson University's jazz programme, and built a large music program for a young church in North Haledon, NJ. After five years in the United States, he moved back to his home province of Ontario. In 1999 he released a collection instrumental improvisations entitled Moving On.

Working with the Chris Coleman, from the folk music group Night Sun, Silver arranged music for the Kingston Symphony Orchestra who played behind Night Sun at Old Fort Henry in Kingston.

He moved from Kingston to Hamilton in 2000, and began building a music programme at Philpott Church. He led the musicians there to release two CD projects of original sacred music.

In 2006, Silver released 12 Girlfriends, a twelve-song collection of original love songs. In 2008, he released two new CD projects, Ghost Town and Sunny Days, and is offering them for free from Last.fm.

2009 saw the release of a Christmas CD, entitled ChristmaSongs. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.