Bruce Ferden

Bruce Ferden (* 1949 in Fosston / Minnesota ; † September 23, 1993 in Seattle ) was an American orchestra conductor and general music director in Aachen , Lincoln (Nebraska) and Spokane / Washington, among others .

Live and act

After studying at Moorhead State University in Moorhead, Minnesota, and the University of Miami, and graduating from the University of Southern California at Los Angeles and the Juilliard School in New York City , Ferden worked with Peter Herman Adler at the American Opera Center. Subsequently, in 1976, at the age of 25, he was appointed assistant to conductor Pierre Boulez at the New York Philharmonic Orchestra . As early as 1980 he conducted the world premiere of the opera Satyagraha by his compatriot Philip Glass at the Nederlandse Oper Amsterdam and later, in 1988, its European premiere of the opera The Making of the Representative of Planet 8 at the same location. In addition, he took on arrangements at the Seattle Opera and also performed with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra at the Next Wave Festival of the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

From 1982 Ferden took on a permanent position as music director with the Nebraska Chamber Orchestra and from 1985 also with the Spokane Symphony. In 1990 he successfully applied for the position of general music director at the Stadttheater Aachen . Here he led the Aachen Symphony Orchestra and the Symphonic Choir and was responsible for the operas The Bartered Bride by Bedřich Smetana , Katja Kabanova by Leoš Janáček and Love for the Three Oranges by Sergei Prokofiev .

As early as the summer of 1992 and in poor health, Ferden moved back to the United States, where he made a few appearances as a guest conductor. In October 1992 he had glamorous appearances at the Metropolitan Opera with the world premiere of the opera The Voyage, again by Philip Glass and with a new edition of Verdi's opera Aida at the Seattle Opera and in January 1993 at the Dallas Opera with Donizetti's opera Lucia di Lammermoor and with three opera works by Manuel de Falla . Most recently he appeared again in June 1993 with a CD recording of the song cycle Singing Earth by the American composer Elinor Remick Warren together with the baritone Thomas Hampson and the Polish Radio and TV Orchestra Krakow , before finally after a long illness on 23 September Died in 1993.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Ferden, Bruce
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American conductor
DATE OF BIRTH	1949
PLACE OF BIRTH	Minnesota
DATE OF DEATH	September 23, 1993
Place of death	Seattle