| John Ferguson John Ferguson is a multi-faceted pianist and composer whose unique programs reflect his diversity as a musician. The Boston Globe praised his “proselytizing zeal—along with fleet fingers, power, and fine dynamic control.” Ferguson’s innovative performances typically include contemporary music, rare and unusual classical repertoire, original works, and experimental music. Often this repertoire is combined with visual/theatrical performances (of his own design) in “multimedia” recitals. Ferguson has performed solo recitals on concert series’ and festivals throughout the US, including Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, San Jose, San Diego, and Providence. He played Liszt’s piano transcription of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in his Los Angeles debut, and Rzewski’s The People United Will Never be Defeated in recent concerts in Arizona. Other past performances include recitals with trumpeter Stephen Burns in New Hampshire, a chamber recital at Western Washington University, and a multimedia recital at Old Dominion University in Virginia; all of which included premieres of his own compositions. In the Boston area, Ferguson has performed at Jordan Hall, the Longy School of Music, Boston Conservatory, and Boston University; these concerts include collaborations with violinist Jennifer Frautschi, trombonists Scott Hartman and Norman Bolter, and hornist Eric Ruske. Concerto appearances include the Melrose Philharmonic, North Shore Philharmonic, Atlantic Union College Orchestra and Mozart Society Orchestra at Harvard University. With the chamber ensemble XY Collective, Ferguson has performed at San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral and the Music at the Anthology festival in New York City. In 2002 Ferguson was a semifinalist in the Concert Artists Guild International Competition. Other awards include Second Prize in the San Francisco State Young Pianists’ Competition and First Prize in the Lodi Symphony Concerto Competition. As a composer Ferguson has received awards and honors from the Bakersfield Symphony, Composers’ Guild, ASCAP, Society of Composers, and American Composers Forum, who commissioned his brass quintet Part Park, Part Art. Ferguson’s Piano Piece No. 4 was selected for performance at the Toronto 2000 international music conference, and is described as “imaginatively and beautifully written for the instrument,” (Boston Globe) and “a work one would gladly hear again” (Sacramento Bee). Ferguson’s performances and compositions have been heard on radio stations WFMT-Chicago, WMBC-Baltimore, KZSU-Palo Alto, KUOP-Stockton, and WFIU-Bloomington. Ferguson holds a Doctoral degree in Piano (with minors in Violin, Composition, and Music History) from Indiana University, where his principal teachers were Edward Auer and Menahem Pressler (piano), Stephen Boe and Henryk Kowalski (violin), Thomas Baldner and Imré Pallo (conducting), and David Dzubay (composition). Ferguson earned undergraduate degrees in both Violin and Piano from the University of the Pacific Conservatory of Music in Stockton, California, where he studied with Warren van Bronkhorst (violin) and Frank Wiens (piano). He has had masterclasses and private lessons with Lukas Foss, Stephen Drury, John Perry, Ursula Oppens, Leonard Hokanson, and Gilbert Kalish. Currently Ferguson resides in Boston, where he teaches string instruments in the Brookline Public Schools while maintaining a private piano studio. He has taught piano and violin at Community Music Center of Boston, been staff accompanist at Boston Conservatory and Emerson College, and served on the conducting faculty at Atlantic Union College in Lancaster, Massachusetts. O1C Performances: John Ferguson |
