Franco Ferrara
Franco Ferrara ( born July 4, 1911 in Palermo, † September 6, 1985 in Florence ) was an Italian conductor and composer.
Life
Ferrara studied violin, piano, organ and composition with Angelo Consolini, Filippo Ivaldi, Antonio Belletti and Cesare Nordio at the conservatories in Bologna and Palermo. He appeared in this period as a violinist and pianist and conducted his own compositions.
From 1931 to 1933 he was a member of the Orchestra dell'Augusteo in Rome and then to 1940 concertmaster at the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, where he worked with conductors such as Vittorio Gui, Antonio Guarnieri, Victor de Sabata, Bruno Walter, Willem Mengelberg and Erich Kleiber.
1938 Ferrara made his debut as a conductor with a concert at the Teatro Comunale di Firenze. His reputation as a conductor was established by a concert he gave in Rome in 1939 with the Orchestra di Santa Cecilia. He led the orchestra until 1945. Besides he gave concerts in Hungary, Romania and Germany, among others with the Berlin Philharmonic, and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra.
1948 Ferrara withdrew for health reasons from the concert. But he still conducted in broadcast recordings works such as the opera I due timidi by Nino Rota ( Prix Italia 1951). At the opening of the 2nd channel of RAI, he conducted the orchestra and chorus of RAI di Roma. As a film composer he has worked with Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni and Luchino Visconti.
From 1947 until his retirement in 1981 taught Ferrarra at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome orchestral conducting and score reading. In addition, he gave in 1958 conducting courses in Perugia and from 1959 in Hilversum. Many famous conductors were taught by him, including Edo de Waart, Emil Tschakarow, Gabriel Chmura, Zoltán Peskó, Riccardo Chailly, Aldo Ceccato, Gaetano Delogu, Gabriele Ferro, Hubert Soudant, Andrew Davis and Richard Vardigans.