Daniel Ferro
Encyclopedia
Daniel Ferro is an American bass-baritone
and voice teacher. Although today he is known primarily as a teacher whose students have included many prominent opera singers, he also had a career as a singer himself both on the concert stage and in opera
and musical theatre
.
. A Fulbright scholarship enabled him to pursue further vocal studies in Austria at the Salzburg Mozarteum and in Italy at the Accademia Chigiana and the Accademia Santa Cecilia. During the early 1950s he was member of the Graz Opera Company
in Austria where his appearances included Mathis der Maler
(Truchsess von Waldburg) and Parsifal
(Titurel). He also appeared on European concert stages and toured with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
. When Ferro returned to the United States in 1956, he took up an apppointment as Associate Professor in the voice department at Butler University
in Indiana. The 1960s found him in back in New York City, teaching at Hunter College
and later at the Manhattan School of Music
where he became chairman of the voice department. During that time, he also performed in both musical theatre and opera, including leading roles in musicals with St. John Terrell's Company
and other summer stock theatre
s, a revival of The Saint of Bleecker Street
in New York City, and concert performances of Werther
in Carnegie Hall
and William Tell
at Lincoln Center
.
In 1972, Ferro joined the faculty of the Juilliard School, a post he held until his retirement as "vocal faculty emeritus" in 2006. Since then he has continued to give master class
es there. However his voice teaching has extended far beyond Juilliard both through his private voice studio in New York and his masterclasses at many of the world's conservatories including the Conservatoire de musique, Montréal, Royal Conservatory of Music
in Toronto, Shanghai Conservatory of Music
, Royal College of Music, Stockholm
and the Accademia Chigiana where he had once been a student himself. In France he has taught at the Opéra de Paris, Paris Conservatory and Fondation Royaumont
and in 1988 was made an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
by the French government for his services to music. Among the many prominent opera singers who have studied with Ferro are Evelyn Lear
, Thomas Stewart, Kathleen Battle
, Alan Titus
, Rosalind Elias
, Patricia Brooks
, and Richard Stilwell.
In 1995 Ferro founded the Daniel Ferro Vocal Program which takes place each summer in Greve in Chianti
, Italy and remains its Artistic Director. The program includes master classes and private voice lessons for young singers as well as public performances in the Castello di Verrazzano and the town's piazza and churches. In 2011, the program faculty and students celebrated Ferro's 90th birthday.
– Barbara Cook
, Theodore Bikel
, Daniel Ferro, Jeanette Scovotti
, Anita Darian. Studio recording, Lehman Engel conductor, Columbia Records
, 1964. Re-released on CD by Sony Broadway
in 1993.
Bass-baritone
A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three Wagnerian roles: the Dutchman in Der fliegende...
and voice teacher. Although today he is known primarily as a teacher whose students have included many prominent opera singers, he also had a career as a singer himself both on the concert stage and in opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
and musical theatre
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
.
Life and career
Ferro was born in New York and graduated from the Juilliard School of Music (in 1948) and from Columbia UniversityColumbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
. A Fulbright scholarship enabled him to pursue further vocal studies in Austria at the Salzburg Mozarteum and in Italy at the Accademia Chigiana and the Accademia Santa Cecilia. During the early 1950s he was member of the Graz Opera Company
Graz Opera
Graz Opera is an opera house and opera company in Graz, Austria.-History:Opera had been performed in Graz since the 17th century, originally in a converted coach house on the Hapsburg royal estates...
in Austria where his appearances included Mathis der Maler
Mathis der Maler (opera)
Mathis der Maler is an opera by Paul Hindemith. The libretto is also by the composer.The opera's genesis lay in Hindemith's interest in the Protestant Reformation...
(Truchsess von Waldburg) and Parsifal
Parsifal
Parsifal is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner. It is loosely based on Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, the 13th century epic poem of the Arthurian knight Parzival and his quest for the Holy Grail, and on Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval, the Story of the Grail.Wagner first conceived the work...
(Titurel). He also appeared on European concert stages and toured with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra is the leading symphony orchestra in Israel. It was originally known as the Palestine Orchestra, and in Hebrew as התזמורת הסימפונית הארץ ישראלית The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (abbreviation IPO; Hebrew: התזמורת הפילהרמונית הישראלית, ha-Tizmoret ha-Filharmonit...
. When Ferro returned to the United States in 1956, he took up an apppointment as Associate Professor in the voice department at Butler University
Butler University
Butler University is a private university located in Indianapolis, Indiana. Founded in 1855 and named after founder Ovid Butler, the university offers 60 degree programs to 4,400 students through six colleges: business, communication, education, liberal Arts and sciences, pharmacy and health...
in Indiana. The 1960s found him in back in New York City, teaching at Hunter College
Hunter College
Hunter College, established in 1870, is a public university and one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York, located on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Hunter grants undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate degrees in more than one hundred fields of study, and is recognized...
and later at the Manhattan School of Music
Manhattan School of Music
The Manhattan School of Music is a major music conservatory located on the Upper West Side of New York City. The school offers degrees on the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition...
where he became chairman of the voice department. During that time, he also performed in both musical theatre and opera, including leading roles in musicals with St. John Terrell's Company
Music circus
Music circus is an American theatrical form begun in Lambertville, New Jersey, by St. John Terrell in 1949. Established as summer stock, the new theatre venues primarily housed light operas and operettas, produced in the round, under a circus-style big top....
and other summer stock theatre
Summer stock theatre
Summer stock theatre is any theatre that presents stage productions only in the summer within the United States. The name combines both the seasonal time of year with the tradition of staging shows by a resident company, reusing stock scenery and costumes...
s, a revival of The Saint of Bleecker Street
The Saint of Bleecker Street
The Saint of Bleecker Street is an opera in three acts by Gian Carlo Menotti to an original English libretto by the composer. It was first performed at The Broadway Theatre in New York City on December 27, 1954. David Poleri and Davis Cunningham alternated in the role of Michele, and Thomas...
in New York City, and concert performances of Werther
Werther
Werther is an opera in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann based on the German epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe....
in Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
and William Tell
William Tell (opera)
Guillaume Tell is an opera in four acts by Gioachino Rossini to a French libretto by Etienne de Jouy and Hippolyte Bis, based on Friedrich Schiller's play Wilhelm Tell. Based on the legend of William Tell, this opera was Rossini's last, even though the composer lived for nearly forty more years...
at Lincoln Center
Avery Fisher Hall
Avery Fisher Hall is a concert hall, in New York City and is part of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts complex. It is the home of the New York Philharmonic, with a capacity of 2,738 seats.-History:...
.
In 1972, Ferro joined the faculty of the Juilliard School, a post he held until his retirement as "vocal faculty emeritus" in 2006. Since then he has continued to give master class
Master class
A master class is a class given to students of a particular discipline by an expert of that discipline—usually music, but also painting, drama, or any of the arts....
es there. However his voice teaching has extended far beyond Juilliard both through his private voice studio in New York and his masterclasses at many of the world's conservatories including the Conservatoire de musique, Montréal, Royal Conservatory of Music
Royal Conservatory of Music
The Royal Conservatory of Music is a music school and performance venue in Toronto, Canada. Other uses of the term include:*The Madrid Royal Conservatory, Spain*The Royal Academy of Music, London, United Kingdom...
in Toronto, Shanghai Conservatory of Music
Shanghai Conservatory of Music
The Shanghai Conservatory of Music , as the first music institution of higher education in China, was founded on November 27, 1927. The teachers and students have won numerous awards both home and abroad, thus earning the conservatory the name, “the cradle of musicians”.-History:The Shanghai...
, Royal College of Music, Stockholm
Royal College of Music, Stockholm
The Royal College of Music, Stockholm is the oldest institution of higher education in music in Sweden, founded in 1771 as the conservatory of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music...
and the Accademia Chigiana where he had once been a student himself. In France he has taught at the Opéra de Paris, Paris Conservatory and Fondation Royaumont
Royaumont Abbey
Royaumont Abbey was a Cistercian abbey, located near Asnières-sur-Oise in Val-d'Oise, approximately 30 km north of Paris, France.-History:It was built between 1228 and 1235 with the support of Louis IX...
and in 1988 was made an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
The Ordre des Arts et des Lettres is an Order of France, established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture, and confirmed as part of the Ordre national du Mérite by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963...
by the French government for his services to music. Among the many prominent opera singers who have studied with Ferro are Evelyn Lear
Evelyn Lear
Evelyn Lear is an American soprano and opera singer.During her career between 1959 and 1992, Evelyn Lear appeared in more than forty operatic roles, appeared with every major opera company in the US and won a Grammy Award in 1966...
, Thomas Stewart, Kathleen Battle
Kathleen Battle
Kathleen Battle , is an African-American operatic soprano known for her agile and light voice and her silvery, pure tone. Battle initially became known for her work within the concert repertoire through performances with major orchestras during the early and mid 1970s. She made her opera debut in...
, Alan Titus
Alan Titus
Alan Titus is an internationally-celebrated baritone. He studied under Aksel Schiøtz at the Colorado School of Music, and Hans Heinz at The Juilliard School. His official debut was as Marcello in La bohème, in Washington, DC, in 1969. He came to prominence, however, in Leonard Bernstein's...
, Rosalind Elias
Rosalind Elias
Rosalind Elias is an American mezzo-soprano, a rich-voiced singer of fine musicianship who enjoyed a long and distinguished career at the Metropolitan Opera.-Life and career:...
, Patricia Brooks
Patricia Brooks
Patricia Brooks , was a lyric soprano, actress, and opera singer, who performed primarily with the New York City Opera. She was known for her acting ability as much as for her voice.-Biography:...
, and Richard Stilwell.
In 1995 Ferro founded the Daniel Ferro Vocal Program which takes place each summer in Greve in Chianti
Greve in Chianti
Greve in Chianti is a town and comune in the province of Florence, Tuscany, Italy. It is located c...
, Italy and remains its Artistic Director. The program includes master classes and private voice lessons for young singers as well as public performances in the Castello di Verrazzano and the town's piazza and churches. In 2011, the program faculty and students celebrated Ferro's 90th birthday.
Recording
Rodgers & Hammerstein: The King and IThe King and I
The King and I is a stage musical, the fifth by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. The work is based on the 1944 novel Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon and derives from the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, who became governess to the children of King Mongkut of Siam in...
– Barbara Cook
Barbara Cook
Barbara Cook is an American singer and actress who first came to prominence in the 1950s after starring in the original Broadway musicals Candide and The Music Man among others, winning a Tony Award for the latter...
, Theodore Bikel
Theodore Bikel
Theodore Meir Bikel is a character actor, folk singer and musician. He made his film debut in The African Queen and was nominated for an Academy award for his supporting role as Sheriff Max Muller in The Defiant Ones ....
, Daniel Ferro, Jeanette Scovotti
Jeanette Scovotti
-Life and career:In 1956 she was in the ensemble of the original Broadway cast of Li'l Abner; the only Broadway production she ever appeared in. In 1959 she won the New York Singing Teachers Association contest and presented a solo recital at Town Hall. That same year she made her debut at the New...
, Anita Darian. Studio recording, Lehman Engel conductor, Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
, 1964. Re-released on CD by Sony Broadway
Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment ' is the second-largest global recorded music company of the "big four" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subsidiary of Japan's Sony Corporation....
in 1993.
External links
- Daniel Ferro Vocal Program (Greve in Chianti, Italy) – Official website
- Image: Daniel Ferro and his wife Joy B. Ferro at Anna MoffoAnna MoffoAnna Moffo was an Italian-American opera singer and one of the leading lyric-coloratura sopranos of her generation...
: a Celebration, Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln CenterAlice Tully HallAlice Tully Hall is a concert hall at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. It is named for Alice Tully, a New York performer and philanthropist whose donations assisted in the construction of the hall...
, 20 September 2006 - Image Daniel Ferro during master classes at Shanghai Conservatory, 1982. Center for United States-China Arts Exchange