Franco Ferrara (Palermo, 4 July 1911 – Florence, 7 September 1985) was an Italianconductor and teacher. Among his many students are various prominent conductors, includingRoberto Abbado,Riccardo Chailly,Andrew Davis andRiccardo Muti.
After obtaining diplomas inpiano,violin,organ andmusical composition at theConservatory of Bologna, Ferrara began his career as violin player in Bologna, in Rome and in Florence, with the Orchestra ofMaggio Musicale Fiorentino (1933 – 1940). 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 theConservatorio Santa Cecilia in Rome.
Ferrara was also present on 14 occasions at theAccademia Musicale Chigiana inSiena, 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 theTeatro Comunale di Bologna.
Outside Italy, Franco Ferrara enjoyed a worldwide career. He held lectures at theRadio Netherlands Worldwide inHilversum (1958 to 1973), at theConservatoire de Paris, at theSwiss Radio inLugano, at the "Tibor Varga" Festival inSion.He also worked inPhilippines, and in Japan where he was invited in 1976 bySeiji Ozawa at TOHO, the Academy ofTokyo, in honor ofHideo Saito, the great conductor who was also the teacher of Ozawa. In the United States Ferrara taught at theCurtis Institute of Music (Philadelphia), theJuilliard School (New York), and the Berkshire Music Center (Tanglewood) from 1975 onward.
About 600 students took part in the courses that Ferrara held for more than thirty years. Among them may be includedJorma Panula,Myung-whun Chung, SirAndrew Davis,Roberto Abbado,Maurizio Arena,Gürer Aykal,Riccardo Chailly,Gianluigi Gelmetti,Karen Gorden,Gilberto Serembe, Gian Luigi Zampieri,Massimo Carpegna, Donald Covert,Mario Lamberto,Riccardo Muti,Daniel Oren, Antoine Mitchell, Cal Stewart Kellogg, Kek-Tjiang Lim,Doron Salomon andMichael Bialoguski.
Ferrara was also a well-known conductor offilm scores. He conducted scores byNino Rota forThe Leopard,Mario Nascimbene forBarabbas, andToshiro Mayuzumi forJohn Huston's filmThe Bible: In the Beginning, and others. His wife was Maritza (Maria Letizia) Carini (1934-2000).
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