John Ferguson, Piano

Biography

John Ferguson's performances
have been praised for their "proselytizing zeal--along with fleet fingers, power,
and fine dynamic control" (Boston Globe) and "impressive qualities of pianistic
brilliance, strength, intellect and sensitivity" (Sacramento Bee).  Ferguson has performed solo recitals in major
cities throughout the US, including concert series' and festivals in Boston, New
York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Sacramento, San Jose,
San Diego, and Providence.  Ferguson's
performances have been heard on radio stations WFMT-Chicago, WMBC-Baltimore,
KZSU-Palo Alto, KUOP-Stockton, and WFIU-Bloomington.

Currently his recital
programs feature some of the most difficult and epic works in the keyboard
literature, including Beethoven's "Hammerklavier" Sonata, Bach's Art of Fugue, and Rzewski's The People United Will Never be Defeated.  Ferguson's performances have also included
such rarities as Liszt's arrangements of Beethoven's symphonies, music from the
renaissance and middle ages, and a wide range of contemporary music, including
his own compositions.  This repertoire is
sometimes presented in "multimedia" concerts, integrated with visual art,
dance, and theater.

Ferguson is an active chamber
musician in the Boston area, having performed at Jordan Hall, the Longy School
of Music, Boston Conservatory, and Boston University among other venues.  These concerts include collaborations with
violinist Jennifer Frautschi, trumpeter Stephen Burns, trombonists Scott
Hartman and Norman Bolter, and hornist Eric Ruske.  As an orchestral soloist, he has recently appeared
with the Melrose Philharmonic, North Shore Philharmonic, Atlantic Union College
Orchestra and Mozart Society Orchestra at Harvard University. 

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. 

Ferguson holds a Doctoral
degree in Piano from Indiana University, where he studied piano with Edward
Auer and Menahem Pressler.   He has had masterclasses and lessons with Gilbert
Kalish, Stephen Drury, Ursula Oppens, and Leonard Hokanson, and he studied
composition privately with Lukas Foss. 
As an undergraduate he majored in both Piano and Violin at the
University of the Pacific Conservatory of Music, and as a graduate student at
Indiana studied conducting, composition and violin intensively while earning
his degrees in piano.

Ferguson's diversity as a
musician has enriched not only his performances, but also his wide-ranging work
as an educator.  He has taught numerous
piano students of all levels--in community music schools, private lessons, and
as an Associate Instructor at Indiana University.  He has also served as Adjunct Professor of
Conducting at Atlantic Union College in Lancaster, Staff Accompanist at Boston
Conservatory and Emerson College, and string instrument teacher in several
public-school programs in Boston.  He
currently works for the Brookline Public Schools, where he teaches string
instruments and conducts the Brookline Youth Orchestra.