Franco Ferrara (
Palermo
Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...
, 4 July 1911
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
, 7 September 1985) was an Italian
conductor and teacher. Among his many students are various prominent conductors, including
Roberto Abbado
Roberto Abbado (born 30 December 1954, Milan) is an Italian opera and symphonic music conducting, conductor. Currently he is Artistic Partner of The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. In 2015 he has been appointed music director of Palau de les Arts R ...
,
Riccardo Chailly
Riccardo Chailly (, ; born 20 February 1953) is an Italian conductor. He is currently music director of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, since 2016, and music director of La Scala, since 2017. Prior to this, he held chief conducting positions ...
,
Andrew Davis and
Riccardo Muti
Riccardo Muti, (; born 28 July 1941) is an Italian conductor. He currently holds two music directorships, at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and at the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini. Muti has previously held posts at the Maggio Musicale ...
.
Life and career
After obtaining diplomas in
piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
,
violin
The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...
,
organ and
musical composition
Musical composition can refer to an original piece or work of music, either vocal or instrumental, the structure of a musical piece or to the process of creating or writing a new piece of music. People who create new compositions are called ...
at the
Conservatory of Bologna
The Conservatorio Giovanni Battista Martini (previously known as the Liceo Musicale di Bologna, and sometimes referred to in English as the Bologna Conservatory) is a college of music in Bologna, Italy. The conservatory opened on 3 December 1804 ...
, Ferrara began his career as violin player in Bologna, in Rome and in Florence, with the Orchestra of
Maggio Musicale Fiorentino
The Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (English: Florence Musical May) is an annual Italian arts festival in Florence, including a notable opera festival, under the auspices of the Opera di Firenze. The festival occurs between late April into June annuall ...
(19331940). Encouraged to take on conducting, he debuted in 1938 in Florence beginning a brilliant career.
In 1948, he retired from conducting in public concerts owing to poor health, but he kept conducting for records and he was engaged as a teacher at the
Conservatorio Santa Cecilia
The Conservatorio di Musica Santa Cecilia is a state conservatory in Rome.
History
The institution has its roots dated back to the Congregazione de' musici di Roma named after Saint Cecilia in 1565 (now Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia). Sin ...
in Rome.
Ferrara was also present on 14 occasions at the
Accademia Musicale Chigiana
The Accademia Musicale Chigiana (''English'': Chigiana Musical Academy) is a music institute in Siena, Italy. It was founded by Count Guido Chigi-Saracini in 1932 as an international centre for advanced musical studies. It organises Master Classe ...
in
Siena
Siena ( , ; lat, Sena Iulia) is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena.
The city is historically linked to commercial and banking activities, having been a major banking center until the 13th and 14th centuri ...
, Italy. Between 1964 and 1985, he lectured on conducting. His classes were attended by students from around the world, many of whom began brilliant careers that brought them onto the international music scene. Between 1974 and 1975, Ferrara also lectured on conducting at the
Teatro Comunale di Bologna
The Teatro Comunale di Bologna is an opera house in Bologna, Italy. Typically, it presents eight operas with six performances during its November to April season.
While there had been various theatres presenting opera in Bologna since the early 1 ...
.
Outside Italy, Franco Ferrara enjoyed a worldwide career. He held lectures at the
Radio Netherlands Worldwide
Radio Netherlands (RNW; nl, Radio Nederland Wereldomroep) was a public radio and television network based in Hilversum, producing and transmitting programmes for international audiences outside the Netherlands from 1947 to 2012.
Its services i ...
in
Hilversum
Hilversum () is a city and municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. Located in the heart of the Gooi, it is the largest urban centre in that area. It is surrounded by heathland, woods, meadows, lakes, and smaller towns. Hilvers ...
(1958 to 1973), at the
Conservatoire de Paris
The Conservatoire de Paris (), also known as the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue ...
, at the
Swiss Radio in
Lugano
Lugano (, , ; lmo, label=Ticinese dialect, Ticinese, Lugan ) is a city and municipality in Switzerland, part of the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino. It is the largest city of both Ticino and the Italian-speaking southern Switzerland. Luga ...
, at the "
Tibor Varga" Festival in
Sion
Sion may refer to
* an alternative transliteration of Zion
People
* Sion (name) or Siôn, a Welsh and other given name and surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name
* Shion or Sion, a Japanese given name
Pl ...
.
He also worked in
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
, and in Japan where he was invited in 1976 by
Seiji Ozawa
Seiji (written: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , or in hiragana) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include:
*, Japanese ski jumper
*, Japanese racing driver
*, Japanese politician
*, Japanese film directo ...
at TOHO, the Academy of
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
, in honor of
Hideo Saito, the great conductor who was also the teacher of Ozawa. In the United States Ferrara taught at the
Curtis Institute of Music
The Curtis Institute of Music is a private conservatory in Philadelphia. It offers a performance diploma, Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in opera, and a Professional Studies Certificate in opera. All students attend on full scholarship.
Hi ...
(
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
), the
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most el ...
(
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
), and the Berkshire Music Center (
Tanglewood
Tanglewood is a music venue in the towns of Lenox and Stockbridge in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. It has been the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1937. Tanglewood is also home to three music schools: the T ...
) from 1975 onward.
About 600 students took part in the courses that Ferrara held for more than thirty years. Among them may be included
Jorma Panula
Jorma Juhani Panula (born 10 August 1930) is a Finnish conductor, composer, and teacher of conducting. He has mentored many Finnish conductors, such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Mikko Franck, Sakari Oramo, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Osmo Vänskä and Klaus ...
,
Myung-whun Chung, Sir
Andrew Davis,
Roberto Abbado
Roberto Abbado (born 30 December 1954, Milan) is an Italian opera and symphonic music conducting, conductor. Currently he is Artistic Partner of The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. In 2015 he has been appointed music director of Palau de les Arts R ...
,
Maurizio Arena
Maurizio Arena (26 December 1933 – 21 November 1979) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in more than 70 films between 1952 and 1978.
Life and career
Born in Rome as Maurizio Di Lorenzo, Arena made his film debut at nineteen years old, ...
,
Gürer Aykal
Gürer Aykal (born May 22, 1942) is a Turkish conductor and adjunct professor at Bilkent University. He has been the musical director and principal conductor of the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra since 1999.
Education
Aykal was born in ...
,
Riccardo Chailly
Riccardo Chailly (, ; born 20 February 1953) is an Italian conductor. He is currently music director of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, since 2016, and music director of La Scala, since 2017. Prior to this, he held chief conducting positions ...
,
Gianluigi Gelmetti
Gianluigi Gelmetti Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, OMRI, (11 September 1945 – 11 August 2021) was an Italian-Monégasque conducting, conductor and composer.
Early life
Gianluigi Gelmetti was born on 11 September 1945 in Rome, Kingdom o ...
,
Karen Gorden,
Gilberto Serembe, Gian Luigi Zampieri,
Massimo Carpegna
Massimo Carpegna (born 8 March 1955) is an Italian conductor.
Biography
After concluding the Scientific Lyceum studies with the highest score, he graduated in Choral Music and Conducting at Antonio Vivaldi Conservatoire (Alessandria, Italy), and ...
, Donald Covert,
Mario Lamberto,
Riccardo Muti
Riccardo Muti, (; born 28 July 1941) is an Italian conductor. He currently holds two music directorships, at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and at the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini. Muti has previously held posts at the Maggio Musicale ...
,
Daniel Oren
Daniel Oren (Hebrew: דניאל אורן; born 1955) is an Israeli conductor.
Biography
Daniel Oren was born in Jaffa, Israel. His paternal grandfather, a Muslim from the prominent Sikseck family who was married to a Jewish woman, rescued Jews ...
, Antoine Mitchell, Cal Stewart Kellogg, Kek-Tjiang Lim,
Doron Salomon and
Michael Bialoguski
Michael Bialoguski (19 March 191729 July 1984) was a Polish-Australian medical practitioner, musician and intelligence agent, who played a significant part in the 1954 Petrov Affair.
Biography
Michael Bialoguski was born to Polish Jewish paren ...
.
Ferrara was also a well-known conductor of
film scores
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to e ...
. He conducted scores by
Nino Rota
Giovanni Rota Rinaldi (; 3 December 1911 – 10 April 1979), better known as Nino Rota (), was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor and academic who is best known for his film scores, notably for the films of Federico Fellini and Luchino Visco ...
for ''
The Leopard
''The Leopard'' ( it, Il Gattopardo ) is a novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa that chronicles the changes in Sicilian life and society during the ''Risorgimento''. Published posthumously in 1958 by Feltrinelli, after two rejections by the ...
'',
Mario Nascimbene
Mario Nascimbene (28 November 1913 – 6 January 2002) was one of the best known Italian film soundtrack composers of the 20th century. His career spanned six decades, during which time he earned several awards for the innovative contents of his ...
for ''
Barabbas
Barabbas (; ) was, according to the New Testament, a prisoner who was chosen over Jesus by the crowd in Jerusalem to be pardoned and released by Roman governor Pontius Pilate at the Passover feast.
Biblical account
According to all four canoni ...
'', and
Toshiro Mayuzumi
Toshiro Mayuzumi (黛 敏郎 ''Mayuzumi Toshirō'' ; 20 February 1929 – 10 April 1997) was a Japanese composer known for his implementation of Avant-garde music, avant-garde instrumentation alongside traditional Japanese musical technique ...
for
John Huston
John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter, actor and visual artist. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered ...
's film ''
The Bible: In the Beginning'', and others. His wife was Maritza (Maria Letizia) Carini (1934-2000).
References
*
*
External links
*
*
1911 births
1985 deaths
Conservatorio Giovanni Battista Martini alumni
Conservatorio Santa Cecilia faculty
Musicians from Palermo
Italian male conductors (music)
Italian music educators
Curtis Institute of Music faculty
Juilliard School faculty
Italian male composers
20th-century Italian composers
20th-century Italian conductors (music)
20th-century Italian male musicians
{{Italy-conductor-stub