Scott Silberstein – HMS Co-founder and Executive Producer
Scott Silberstein grew up in Cincinnati and is a graduate of The University of Pennsylvania. He studied piano performance and composition in the ground breaking Baldwin Pathways program, becoming part of its first Master Class and earning the Jose Iturbi Piano Scholarship and merit honors from The Guildhall School of Music in London. His friendship with summer camp pal Matt Hoffman led him in to the world of television production.
Scott has received Emmy Awards for producing The Chicago Dance Project, Steppenwolf Theatre Company: 25 Years on the Edge, Reality of a Dreamer: River North Dance Company, Why Am I Hiding and Artbeat Chicago, and been nominated for River North Rising, Just Passing Through, the Homeless PSA Campaign for the City of Chicago (featuring Genesis), and composing music for Nothing Is Simple (NBC), The World of Anne Frank (WTTW) and North Shore on the Air (syndicated cable).
He and Matt were jointly awarded Chicago Dance Coalition Ruth Page Awards in 1991 and 1993 for Collaborative Artists of the Year, and he was again given the award in 2005 for creating The Chicago Dance Project. Scott has composed original scores for nearly two dozen dance and theater pieces, including Kira The Young Hunter with Phil Collins, Twelve Dancing Princesses, and the upcoming Golden Bird with Keegan-Michael Key.
As lead producer on HMS Media’s work for Broadway shows, national tours, and regional theater, music and dance, Scott has produced promotional television projects and commercials for dozens of shows and companies including Mamma Mia, The Producers, Wicked, The Color Purple, The Wedding Singer, Company, Hairspray, Steppenwolf Theatre, The Goodman Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Lookingglass Theater, The Joffrey Ballet, Jump Rhythm Jazz Project, River North Chicago Dance Company, Giordano Dance Jazz Chicago, Dance Chicago and the Jazz Dance World Congress.
Matthew Hoffman – HMS Co-founder and Executive Producer
Matt grew up in Glencoe, Illinois, just north of Chicago. His passion for music and television blossomed at New Trier East High School, where he was first trombonist in the jazz band and orchestra, and where he first began exploring the visual arts.
As a graduate of The Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University, Matt developed an early proficiency for videography, editing and directing, and while still a senior was awarded a fellowship to develop, write and produce a sample pilot for a children’s television series. Upon returning to Chicago, Matt quickly found himself in demand as a director, editor and videographer, becoming the key creative at WJUF.
In 1990, Matt was awarded his first Emmy for directing and shooting Why Am I Hiding, a groundbreaking documentary on rape and sexual assault featuring L.A. Law’s Susan Ruttan. The next fall, Matt was honored with the first of three Chicago Dance Coalition Ruth Page Awards for outstanding collaborations with top Chicago Dance artists, including Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and Joseph Holmes Chicago Dance Theatre.
He earned the honor again in 1993 for television projects with companies including River North Chicago Dance Company and Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago, and once more in 1997 for editing the dance film “Whole Fragments” for The Chicago Dance Medium. Matt has also been nominated for Emmys for directing Reality of a Dreamer: The River North Dance Company in 1994 and Just Passing Through in 1996, and for his videography in River North Rising in 2000.
Matt also supervises and directs HMS’ major multicamera shoots for broadcast specials, including the newest HMS project, Jump Rhythm Jazz Project: Getting There. He has also designed and directed multicamera shoots for a wide ranging array of live shoots for Mozart’s Great Mass and Cymbeline for The Big Ten Network and with The Chicago Philharmonic.
John Ford – Video Division Manager
John is a graduate of the Visual and Performing Arts school at Syracuse University. He began his career at WCNY-TV in Syracuse, owned his own video production company in Boston and was also a lighting director for the Monitor Network. A longtime friend and collaborator of HMS Media founders Matt Hoffman and Scott Silberstein since 1984, John joined HMS Media in 1995 as Video Division Manager, and has worked on dozens of arts productions to date.
John is a certified Steadicam operator, a tool he uses extensively in a wide spectrum of HMS projects, including the Ruth Page Award-winning Birthmarks with The Chicago Dance Medium. His Steadicam work is featured in each of HMS’ acclaimed dance specials. John’s television work for HMS Media has been seen on every major broadcast network, and his lighting designs and camera work have been featured in business and broadcast television for such HMS clients such as Kurtis Productions, WTTW Channel 11, Culligan International and Bozell Worldwide.
John was nominated for two Emmy Awards for his Steadicam and videography work on HMS’s 2000 special River North Rising, and for Steadicam work on The Chicago Dance Project.
Kristin Klinger – Producer/Editor
Kristin’s love of documentary production and the arts were key reasons why she was so enthusiastic about becoming part of the HMS team, and why HMS jumped at the chance to invite her onto the team in summer of 1999. She has a degree in Radio/TV and French from Indiana University in Bloomington, IN, where she began her television career at the local PBS affiliate, WTIU. There she had the opportunity to work in a variety of areas, from shooting to editing to directing live television.
After moving to Chicago in 1994, Kristin’s freelance production work introduced her to the world of educational video, which led to a four-year position at General Learning Communications, where she demonstrated her versatility as writer, producer, audio technician, AVID editor and graphic artist.
Kristin joined HMS in July of 1999 as associate producer, and during her time with HMS has served as producer/editor on a wide range of projects, including WTTW’s Arts Across Illinois, HMS’ Emmy-winning series The Chicago Dance Project, and an upcoming documentary for public television on The Chicago Children’s Choir and its civil rights tour through the southeastern U.S.
She plays vital editing and post-production roles on commercials and other promotional materials for theatrical clients in Chicago, and from L.A. to Broadway. Kristin has been lead producer and/or editor on short-form documentary and developmental pieces for a wide range of not-for-profits, including the Leukemia Research Foundation, Chicago Family Health Center, and for many of our corporate and commercial theater clients, including development pieces for International Marketing Exchange, Discover Card, Evanston Hospital, Broadway in Chicago, web content for Crain’s Chicago Business, commercials for “SpongeBob Squarepants” for Broadway Asia, and b-roll packages for Mamma Mia and The Color Purple. Kristin is thrilled to be celebrating her eighth year at HMS.
Catherine Hickman – Associate Producer
Catherine joined the HMS Media team in July 2007 with a strong background in independent film and arts management. A graduate of Columbia College Chicago, Catherine concentrated in producing and cinematography, and has lent her creative vision and production skills to several independent shorts and graduate films. She was worn many hats on set, ranging from grip to camera operator to producer, and plans to utilize this diversity here on our team.
Catherine spent the last four years in arts management with such companies as Propane Productions and most recently The Arts and Business Council of Chicago, where her roles included both production and business management. Her background at the Arts and Business Council means she joins HMS with deep familiarity with our regional arts clients and collaborators, and the background and insights to make her yet another ideal producer for our broadcast and promotional projects with the arts.
Catherine’s combined administrative and artistic skills are complimented by her passion for visual storytelling, and she has already become associate producer of an hour-long Big Ten Network documentary on Northwestern University’s production of Shakespeare’s Cymbeline, directed by Mary Zimmerman.
