She studied with Irving Fine,[5] Earl George, and Karel Husa,[6] and in Paris with unspecified teachers.
[7] Her dissertation was on a composition by Peter Maxwell Davies called Stone Litany.
She married Robert Silsbee, a physicist who taught at Cornell,[3] and they had three sons, Doug, David, and Peter.
[9] In 1964, Silsbee's work River was performed at the Ferienkurs fuer Neue Musik in Darmstadt, Germany.
[3] Her works were recorded commercially on the LPs TURNA TV 34704 and NORTH NR 221,[7] and published by the ACA.