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Franco Ferrara (
Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , 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 province. The ...
, 4 July 1911
Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...
, 7 September 1985) was an Italian conductor and teacher. Among his many students are various prominent conductors, including Roberto Abbado, Riccardo Chailly, Andrew Davis and
Riccardo Muti Riccardo Muti (; born 28 July 1941) is an Italian conductor. He is current music director of the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini. Muti has previously held posts at the Maggio Musicale in Florence, the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, the ...
.


Life and career

After obtaining diplomas in
piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...
,
violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...
,
organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...
and
musical composition Musical composition can refer to an Originality, original piece or work of music, either Human voice, vocal or Musical instrument, instrumental, the musical form, structure of a musical piece or to the process of creating or writing a new pie ...
at the Conservatory of Bologna, Ferrara began his career as violin player in Bologna, in Rome and in Florence, with the Orchestra of Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (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 in Rome. Ferrara was also present on 14 occasions at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in
Siena Siena ( , ; traditionally spelled Sienna in English; ) is a city in Tuscany, in central Italy, and the capital of the province of Siena. It is the twelfth most populated city in the region by number of inhabitants, with a population of 52,991 ...
, 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 ...
. Outside Italy, Franco Ferrara enjoyed a worldwide career. He held lectures at the
Radio Netherlands Worldwide Radio Netherlands (RNW; ) 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 in Dutch ended on 11 May 2012. Eng ...
in
Hilversum Hilversum () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland, Netherlands. Located in the heart of the Gooi, it is ...
(1958 to 1973), at the
Conservatoire de Paris The Conservatoire de Paris (), or 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 Jean Ja ...
, at the Swiss Radio in
Lugano Lugano ( , , ; ) is a city and municipality within the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland. It is the largest city in both Ticino and the Italian-speaking region of southern Switzerland. Lugano has a population () of , and an u ...
, at the " Tibor Varga" Festival in Sion. He also worked in
Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...
, and in Japan where he was invited in 1976 by Seiji Ozawa at TOHO, the Academy of
Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...
, 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 (
Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
), the
Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a Private university, private performing arts music school, conservatory in New York City. Founded by Frank Damrosch as the Institute of Musical Art in 1905, the school later added dance and drama programs and became ...
( New York), and the Berkshire Music Center (
Tanglewood Tanglewood is a music venue and Music festival, festival in the towns of Lenox, Massachusetts, Lenox and Stockbridge, Massachusetts, Stockbridge in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. It has been the summer home of the Boston Symphony ...
) 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, Myung-whun Chung, Sir Andrew Davis, Roberto Abbado, Maurizio Arena,
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 ...
, Riccardo Chailly, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Karen Gorden, Gilberto Serembe, Gian Luigi Zampieri, Massimo Carpegna, Donald Covert, Mario Lamberto,
Riccardo Muti Riccardo Muti (; born 28 July 1941) is an Italian conductor. He is current music director of the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini. Muti has previously held posts at the Maggio Musicale in Florence, the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, the ...
, Daniel Oren, Antoine Mitchell, Cal Stewart Kellogg, Kek-Tjiang Lim, Doron Salomon and Michael Bialoguski. 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 ...
. He conducted scores by Nino Rota for '' The Leopard'', Mario Nascimbene for ''
Barabbas According to the New Testament, Barabbas () was a Jewish bandit and rabble-rouser who was imprisoned by the Judaea (Roman province), Roman occupation in Jerusalem, only to be chosen over Jesus by a crowd to be pardoned by Roman governor Pontius ...
'', and Toshiro Mayuzumi for
John Huston John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics. He rec ...
's film '' The Bible: In the Beginning'', and others. His wife was Maritza (Maria Letizia) Carini (1934-2000).


References

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External links

* * 1911 births 1985 deaths Conservatorio Giovanni Battista Martini alumni Academic staff of Conservatorio Santa Cecilia Musicians from Palermo Italian male conductors (music) Italian music educators Curtis Institute of Music faculty Juilliard School faculty 20th-century Italian composers 20th-century male composers 20th-century Italian conductors (music) 20th-century Italian male musicians Italian film score composers Italian male film score composers {{Italy-conductor-stub