Michael Ferri

A first-generation Italian-American, Michael Ferri earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Violin Performance with distinction under Paul Kantor at the Shepherd School of Music, Rice University in Houston, Texas. He received both the Master of Music in Violin and Master of Musical Arts degrees under Ani Kavafian at the Yale School of Music, graduating with Honors.

Described as a “self-possessed but unassuming” violinist with “style and vivacity” (Cleveland Classical), Michael is a first-prize winner of the Mika Hasler Young Artist Competition and the Shepherd School of Music Concerto Competition and is a fourth-prize winner of the Houston Symphony Ima Hogg Competition. He has appeared as a soloist with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Yale Philharmonia, the Cleveland Women’s Orchestra, and many regional orchestras in Northeast Ohio.

Inspired by studies with the Cavani Quartet in high school, Michael has been a devoted chamber musician throughout his career. Early chamber music appearances include Da Camera of Houston, Chamber Music Houston, the Aspen Music Festival and School String Quartet Intensive, and the Robert Mann String Quartet Institute.

Michael plays on a contemporary violin by his friend Jan H. van Rooyen, 2007, modeled after the “Vieuxtemps” Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesú, 1741, and a contemporaneous copy of a Jacobus Stainer, c. 1680, ex-Eugène Ysaÿe.