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Frank Ferko Biography
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The music of Frank Ferko has been heard in live performances and radio broadcasts around the world. Hailed by critics as a master of text setting and composing for a cappella vocal ensembles, Mr. Ferko is one of the most sought after composers of new choral music today, and his works have been performed by some of the most highly regarded choral ensembles and vocal soloists of our time. Mr. Ferko's works have been performed all over the world by such by distinguished ensembles as Nederlands Kamerkoor, VU-Kamerkoor, Oost-Nederlands Kamerkoor (The Netherlands), Jubilate Singers (New Zealand), Commotio, BBC Singers, Trinity College Choir, Cambridge, ORA Singers, Holst Singers, Londinium, (United Kingdom), Trinity College Choir, Melbourne, Harvard Glee Club, Volti (San Francisco), Cantori New York, Cerddorion, Conspirare, Seattle Pro Musica, Choral Arts, Opus 7, The Esoterics, Vocal Arts Ensemble of Cincinnati, BYU Singers, Magnum Chorum, Ars Nova Singers, Lutheran Choir of Chicago, South Bend Chamber Singers, Bella Voce (formerly known as His Majestie's Clerkes), American Repertory Singers, and the Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra. Distinguished solo artists who have performed his works include sopranos Sylvia McNair, Jeanne-Michele Charbonnet, Nancy Gustafson, Claudia Patacca, and Patrice Michaels; tenors Brian Manternach, Michael Hume, and Kurt Hansen; baritones Nathan Gunn, Robert Orth, Keith Phares, and Jeffrey Ray; duet keyboardists Timothy and Nancy LeRoi Nickel, Marilyn and James Biery, and Colin Andrews and Janette Fishell, as well as organists David Schrader, Patrick Wedd, Robert Huw Morgan, David Craighead, Larry Palmer, Dana Robinson, Jonathan Dimmock, McNeil Robinson, Leonard Raver, Russian harpsichordist Tatiana Zenaishvili, and saxophonists Frederick Hemke, Jasmin Lelande, Harry White, and Gail Levinsky. Notable venues in which Mr. Ferko's music has been presented include Carnegie Hall, Orchestra Hall (Minneapolis), Beurs van Berlage (Amsterdam), Rachmaninov Hall (Moscow), Cathedrale de Notre Dame de Paris, Domkerk, Utrecht (Netherlands), Basilique Sainte-Marie-Madeleine (Vezelay, France), St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin and The Merce Cunningham Dance Studio (New York). Festivals and concert serieswhich have presented his music include the Sixth World Symposium on Choral Music (2002), Jusqu'aux oreilles (Montreal, 2001-2003, 2005-2006), Festival Oude Muziek (Utrecht, 1998), and Sacred Music in a Sacred Space (Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, New York 2016 and 2017). His works have also been heard at conventions of the American Guild of Organists, American Choral Directors Association and Chorus America. From 2001 to 2003 Frank Ferko held the position of Composer-in-Residence with the Dale Warland Singers, long regarded as one of America's finest a cappella choirs, and his awards include an ASCAP award nearly every year from 1989 to 2019, as well as awards from Meet the Composer, American Composers Forum, American Music Center, Arts International and the American Guild of Organists. Four times he received the Individual Artist's Fellowship from the Illinois Arts Council, and in 2003, 2005 and 2006 the Illinois Arts Council awarded him the Governor's International Travel Exchange Grant for presentations of his music in The Netherlands and Ireland. His works are published exclusively by E.C. Schirmer, and many of his works have been recorded for compact disc and digital download on the Harmonia Mundi, Hyperion, Arsis, Cedille, Loft/Gothic, Herald, Gasparo, Raven, Pro Organo, ZigZag, Notegun, New Art and Liturgical Press labels. His Stabat Mater for unaccompanied mixed chorus and soprano solo, which received high audience and critical acclaim in the U.S. and abroad, has been recorded twice on compact disc, most recently for Gothic ReZound with soprano Juliana Rambaldi and Choral Arts (Seattle), conducted by Robert Bode, and also for Cedille Records with soprano Nancy Gustafson and His Majestie's Clerkes (former name of Bella Voce), conducted by Anne Heider. Mr. Ferko has also served as adjudicator in national competitions including the ASCAP Awards in Adventurous Programming, the AGO/ECS Choral Composition Competition and Choral Ventures of the Dale Warland Singers. He has presented his own works in lecture/demonstrations at universities, conservatories and high schools across the country and abroad. |
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