Scott Silberstein

Co-founder HMS Media
Business Website  

Scott is a 6-time Emmy Award winning writer/producer for 20-time Emmy Award-winning HMS Media, which he co-founded with Matt Hoffman in 1988. He has developed, produced and written broadcast and digital specials including Chicago Voices (with Renée Fleming & Lyric Opera of Chicago), The Hip Hop Nutcracker, First You Dream: The Music of Kander & Ebb, Through The Night with Daniel Beatty, Steppenwolf Theatre Company: 25 Years on the Edge, Second To None (with Tina Fey & The Second City), Dance For Life, Our City Our Shakespeare (with Renée Fleming and Chicago Shakespeare Theater), Get Happy: Angela Ingersoll Sings Judy Garland, The Chicago Dance Project, Dance From The Heart (featuring Ben Vereen and The Joffrey Ballet) and multiple specials with Under The Streetlamp, River North Chicago Dance Company, Jump Rhythm Jazz Project, Celtic Woman and Keith Lockhart & The Boston Pops.

Scott has overseen broadcast, online and commissioned content for a wide array of Broadway shows, national tours, and Chicago and resident performing arts organizations including Hamilton, Lookingglass Theatre, Dear Evan Hansen, Steppenwolf Theatre, Oklahoma!, Deeply Rooted Productions, The Book of Mormon, Court Theatre, Wicked, Giordano Dance Chicago, Jersey Boys, Fun Home, Drury Lane Theatre, Beautiful, The House Theatre, Billy Elliott, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Les Miserables, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Phantom of the Opera, Marriott Lincolnshire Theatre, Mamma Mia!, Lucky Plush, Dreamgirls, The Second City, Hairspray, The Goodman Theatre, The Color Purple, The Joffrey Ballet, Kinky Boots, The Gift Theatre and more.

Scott is an Artistic Associate at Lookingglass Theatre Company, serves on the advisory board for Giordano Dance Chicago and is a past Vice-President of the SeeChicagoDance board of director. As an arts advocate, he is a board member of Arts Alliance Illinois (where co-chairs the Arts Leadership Council and serves as a team leader for the National Arts Action Summit), a member of the Legislative Council for The Broadway League and published of the Arts in Action newsletter. He was a classically trained pianist, winning the Jose Iturbu Scholarship from the Baldwin Piano Music Labs educational program and earning a piano studies certificate from London’s Guildhall School of Music at the age of twelve. He has won three Ruth Page Awards for Collaborative Artist of the Year for original dance scores, sound designs and television projects. As a composer and sound designer, he has created music scores and soundscapes for River North Dance Chicago, Zephyr Dance, Kast & Company and the Lynda Martha Dance Company, including Kira The Young Hunter with Phil Collins.

About Drew McManus

"I hear that every time you show up to work with an orchestra, people get fired." Those were the first words out of an executive's mouth after her board chair introduced us. That executive is now a dear colleague and friend but the day that consulting contract began with her orchestra, she was convinced I was a hatchet-man brought in by the board to clean house.

I understand where the trepidation comes from as a great deal of my consulting and technology provider work for arts organizations involves due diligence, separating fact from fiction, interpreting spin, as well as performance review and oversight. So yes, sometimes that work results in one or two individuals "aggressively embracing career change" but far more often than not, it reinforces and clarifies exactly what works and why.

In short, it doesn't matter if you know where all the bodies are buried if you can't keep your own clients out of the ground, and I'm fortunate enough to say that for more than 15 years, I've done exactly that for groups of all budget size from Qatar to Kathmandu.

For fun, I write a daily blog about the orchestra business, provide a platform for arts insiders to speak their mind, keep track of what people in this business get paid, help write a satirical cartoon about orchestra life, hack the arts, and love a good coffee drink.

Episodes