INTERVIEWS
"We are so lucky that we get to work in an environment that is creative and new and challenging and pushing boundaries."
THE MAURICE SEYMOUR AWARD
for Vision and Service
As a highlight of the Interview Marathon on January 31, Chicago Dance History Project presents its inaugural
Maurice Seymour Award for Vision and Service to Scott Silberstein, producer and co-founder of HMS Media, the Emmy Award-winning multimedia company that creates broadcast, online, and mobile content.
More about the Maurice Seymour Award
“Maurice Seymour” was actually two brothers, Maurice and Seymour Zeldman, who combined their names when launching their photo studios. Though the Chicago-based Seymour photographed numerous celebrities in a variety of professions, many people knew of him especially for his ballet photos, collected in two volumes. The Maurice Seymour Award recognizes an individual who has demonstrated the ability to “see more” in the Chicago dance world and made an extraordinary contribution in specific alignment with CDHP’s mission to investigate, document, and present the individual and institutional histories of Chicago dance.
More about Scott Silberstein
Scott is a six-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 focusing on dance (including The Nutcracker v2020, The Hip Hop Nutcracker, Dance for Life, The Chicago Dance Project, Dance From The Heart with Ben Vereen and The Joffrey Ballet, Getting There: Jump Rhythm Jazz Project, Billy Sunday, and, all featuring River North Chicago Dance Company, Every Dancer Has A Story, River North Rising, and Reality of a Dreamer); theatre (Through The Night with Daniel Beatty, Steppenwolf Theatre: 25 Years on the Edge, Second To None with Tina Fey & The Second City, and Our City Our Shakespeare with Renée Fleming and Chicago Shakespeare Theater); and music (including Great Performances: Chicago Voices with Renée Fleming & Lyric Opera of Chicago; First You Dream: The Music of Kander & Ebb for the PBS Arts Fall Festival; Studio Sessions with Chita Rivera, John Kander, and Stephen Schwartz; Get Happy: Angela Ingersoll Sings Judy Garland; Celtic Woman: Emerald; Handel’s Messiah Rocks with LaChanze, Keith Lockhart & The Boston Pops; and three PBS pledge specials with Under The Streetlamp).
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Since 1988, HMS’ dance collaborators and clients have included Giordano Dance Chicago, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, The Joffrey Ballet, Joseph Holmes Chicago Dance Theater, Ensemble Español Spanish Dance Theater, Trinity Irish Dancers, Concert Dance Inc., Natya, Mordine & Company, Chicago Moving Company, Hedwig Dances, Lucky Plush, The Seldoms, Molly Shanahan/MAD SHAK, Cerqua Rivera, Robin Lakes/Rough Dance, Jump Rhythm Jazz Project, Chicago Human Rhythm Project, Dance for Life, Deeply Rooted Dance Theater, Muntu Dance Theatre, Breakbone, Chicago Dance Medium, Kast & Company, Lynda Martha Dance Company, Ballet Chicago, Winifred Haun & Dancers, The Dance COLEctive, Zephyr Dance, Melissa Thodos & Dancers, James Kelly Choreography Project, Chicago Dancemakers Forum, The 58 Group, ChiTown Jazz Dance, the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago, Chicago Repertory Dance Ensemble, M.A.D.D. Rhythms, Ayako Kato, and See Chicago Dance/Audience Architects.
Scott has produced, directed, and executive-produced broadcast and online content for a wide array of Broadway shows and national tours including Hamilton, Come From Away, Oklahoma!, Peter and the Starcatcher, Dear Evan Hansen, Equus, The Book of Mormon, Jersey Boys, Fun Home, Beautiful, Billy Elliott, Wicked, Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera, Hairspray, The Farnsworth Invention, and Mamma Mia!. He has also produced hundreds of projects for Chicago theatre companies including Lookingglass, Chicago Shakespeare, Steppenwolf, Court, Writers, Goodman, The House, The Gift, Porchlight, Marriott Lincolnshire, and Drury Lane.
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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 See Chicago Dance board of directors. An active arts advocate, he is a board member of Arts Alliance Illinois (for whom he co-chairs the Arts Leadership Council and serves as a team leader for the National Arts Action Summits), a member of the Legislative Council for The Broadway League, and publisher of the Arts in Action newsletter.
Scott 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 12. 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.