Special Opportunities: Conductors’ Institute Faculty
DR. LOIS FERRARI
Institute Director
Lois Ferrari is Professor of Music at Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX and has been a member of the faculty since 1993. Dr. Ferrari conducts the SU Orchestra, Wind Ensemble, Opera Orchestra, and Pit Orchestra, and also teaches beginning and advanced conducting. Her ensembles have performed at national conventions and with renowned guest artists such as Donald Hunsberger and Rodney Winther. Several of Dr. Ferrari’s conducting students have gone on to pursue graduate degrees in conducting at institutions such as the Peabody Institute, the Ithaca College School of Music, Butler University, the University of Texas at Arlington, and the University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Ferrari is also Music Director of the Austin Civic Orchestra and has been in this position since 2002. In November 2010, she became the first woman to conduct in Dell Hall at the Long Center for the Performing Arts in Austin. In 2009, a performance of Jason Hoogerhyde’s “Lament” earned Ferrari and the ACO an Austin Critics’ Table nomination for best symphonic performance of 2009. Dr. Ferrari has brought many celebrated guest artists to the ACO stage: Peter Bay, Lauren Lane, Anton Nel, Andrew Sords, David Whitwell, and Hai Zheng, just to name a few. She has also been intimately involved with nurturing future virtuosi through the ACO’s annual Pearl Amster Youth Concerto Festival. Dr. Ferrari believes one of the more important responsibilities a conductor shoulders is that of championing new music. To that end, the ACO sponsors a bi-annual composition contest.
A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, where she received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in conducting, Dr. Ferrari was a recipient of a full doctoral fellowship and was appointed Assistant Conductor of the renowned Eastman Wind Ensemble. She also earned a Master of Music degree in conducting and a Bachelor of Music degree in both performance and music education from the Ithaca College School of Music. She has studied conducting with Donald Hunsberger, Rodney Winther, David Effron, and Donald Neuen.
Aside from her duties at SU and with the ACO, Dr. Ferrari maintains a healthy guest conducting schedule and loves to work with musicians of all ages. She also nurtures a strong interest in playwriting and screenwriting and has won several awards for her efforts. Originally a New Yorker, Dr. Ferrari now resides in Georgetown, Texas, with her husband, Dr. Paul Gaffney, and their two cats, Buddha and Gandhi.
MR. PETER BAY
Peter Bay is celebrating his 13th full season as Music Director and Conductor of the Austin Symphony, and has been Music Director of the Britt Festival Orchestra in Jacksonville, OR since 1993.
Maestro Bay’s guest appearances have included the National, Chicago, St. Louis, Houston, Dallas, Baltimore, New Mexico, New Jersey, North Carolina, Syracuse, Virginia, West Virginia, Colorado, Hawaii, Jacksonville, Richmond, Alabama, Arkansas, Canton, Eugene, Fort Worth, Springfield, Bochum (Germany), Carinthian (Austria), Lithuanian National Symphonies, the Minnesota and Algarve (Portugal) Orchestras, the Louisiana, Buffalo, Rhode Island, Tulsa, Fort Wayne and Reno Philharmonics, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Eastman (Postcard from Morroco) and Aspen Opera Theaters (The Ballad of Baby Doe), and the Theater Chamber Players of the Kennedy Center. Summer music festival appearances have included Aspen (CO), Music in the Mountains (CO), Grant Park and Ravinia (IL), Round Top (TX), OK Mozart (OK) and Skaneateles (NY).
Peter is the primary conductor for the ASO’s performances with Ballet Austin. He made his Austin Lyric Opera debut in January 2002 with Andre Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire, conducted Verdi’s La Traviata in November 2002, Puccini’s Turandot in November 2003, and Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro in April 2005.
Other positions held by Mr. Bay have included Music Director of the Erie Philharmonic, Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, Breckenridge Music Festival (CO) and four different conducting posts with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and the Richmond Symphony in Virginia. Bay and the Richmond Symphony recorded the US premiere performance of Britten’s “The Sword in the Stone” for Opus One Records. His CD, Voices, featuring the percussion ensemble NEXUS and the Rochester Philharmonic, is on the Nexus CD label.
A native of Washington, DC, Mr. Bay is a graduate of the University of Maryland and the Peabody Institute of Music. In 1994, he was one of two conductors selected to participate in the Leonard Bernstein American Conductors Program. He was also the first prize winner of the 1980 Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Young Conductors Competition and a prize winner of the 1987 Leopold Stokowski Competition sponsored by the American Symphony Orchestra in New York.
For further information, write or call:
Dr. Lois Ferrari
Southwestern University
PO Box 770
Georgetown, TX 78627-0770
(512)-863-1354
ferraril@southwestern.edu
