Franco Ferrara

Franco Ferrara (Palermo, 4 July 1911 – Florence, 7 September 1985) was an Italian conductor and teacher.

After obtaining diplomas in piano, violin, organ and musical composition 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 (1933 – 1940).

His classes were attended by students from around the world, many of whom began brilliant careers that brought them onto the international music scene.

Among them may be included Jorma Panula, Myung-whun Chung, Sir Andrew 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 and Michael Bialoguski.

He conducted scores by Nino Rota for The Leopard, Mario Nascimbene for Barabbas, and Toshiro Mayuzumi for John Huston's film The Bible: In the Beginning, and others.