Orchestra conductor and cellist, Federico Ferri is musical director and founder of the Ensemble Respighi and the Accademia degli Astrusi. With these groups he has developed his own artistic career, promoting projects and concerts from baroque to contemporary music with renowned soloists such as Anna Caterina Antonacci, Bruno Canino, Sara Mingardo, Franco Maggio Ormezowsky, Domenico Nordio, Pavel Berman, Danilo Rossi, Stefano Montanari, Mauro Valli, Emanuele Segre and actors such as Arnoldo Foà, Nando Gazzolo, Ugo Pagliai, Paola Gassman and Sandro Lombardi. He performed in prestigious venues such as the Ravenna Festival, Grand Theatre de l’Opera National de Bordeaux, Royal Palace in Lisbon, Palazzo del Quirinale in Rome, Berlin Konzerthaus, Wigmore Hall, the Teatro Comunale in Bologna and Teatro dal Verme in Milan.
Assistant of Gianandrea Noseda at “Festival Internazionale delle Settimane Musicali di Stresa” for Rossini’s “Cinderella”, Stravinskij’s “Rake’s Progress” and Mozart’s “Idomeneo”, he has conducted two world premières which were enthusiastically received by public and critics alike: one was “Stagioni” by Adriano Guarnieri recorded for the Tactus label in collaboration with Rai Trade. Of particular significance is his activity in rediscovering and promoting such forgotten repertoire as several scores by Franco Margola, and works by the composer Luciano Simoni.
He has further enriched his artistic experience through his philological research into Italian 17th- and 18th-century repertoire, organising prestigious concerts using original instruments. Of particular note is his role in the rediscovery of the instrumental works of Padre Giovanni Battista Martini, a continuing project bringing back to light the valuable but forgotten compositions of Mozart’s famous teacher. He is working with Daniele Proni o the critical edition of Martini’s works for Suvini-Zerboni.
In recent years he has also recorded for Velut Luna and Tactus music by Vivaldi, Boccherini and unpublished works by Geminiani, Giordani, Bellinzani, Haym, Bitti and Tartini. For CD Classics magazine he recorded, with D. Nordio and D. Rossi, Mozart’s complete violin concertos and the sinfonia concertante for violin, viola, and orchestra. Many of his recordings have been transmitted by radio stations such as Radio Vaticana, SBS, Radio Svizzera Italiana, BBC and Rai Radio 3, receiving constant critical acclaim.
Ferri completed his musical studies at the G.B. Martini Conservatoire in Bologna with diplomas in cello with Massimo Godoli and in composition with Adriano Guarnieri, later obtaining the superior diploma; he then continued advanced instrumental studies with M. Maisky at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, Franco Maggio Ormezowsky, Rocco Filippini and Baroque technique with Mauro Valli. He studied orchestral direction with Luis Salomon, Isaac Karabchewsky and Aldo Ceccato, conducting the orchestras of the Teatro Comunale of Bologna, Teatro Sociale of Como, MusicaRivafestival, Arad, Accademia Filarmonica of La Scala and of I Pomeriggi Musicali. In Milan he met and spent time with Carlo Maria Giulini from whom he gleaned much musical insight.
He is President of Kaleidos and, together with Daniele Proni, artistic director of the “Caleidoscopio Musicale” series, organising concerts and experimental projects incorporating different artistic idioms, culminating in concerts dedicated to schools, hospitals and nursing homes, in artistic and natural settings.
He recently completed the musical direction and recordings of the whole instrumental works by Martini and he will work on projects in Italy and abroad in collaboration with Sara Mingardo, Laura Polverelli and Anna Caterina Antonacci in MITO Festival, “Amici della musica di Firenze”, Unione Musicale of Turin and Wigmore Hall.