Ferrante & Teicher
Encyclopedia
Ferrante & Teicher were a duo of American piano players, known for their light arrangements of familiar classical pieces, movie soundtracks, and show tunes.
– September 19, 2009), and Louis Teicher
(August 24, 1924, Wilkes-Barre
, Pennsylvania
– August 3, 2008) met while studying at the Juilliard School
of Music in New York. Musical prodigies, they began performing as a piano duo while still in school. After graduating, they both joined the Juilliard faculty.
Steven Tyler
of Aerosmith
relates the story that in the 1950s the two students practiced in the home of his grandmother Constance Neidhart Tallarico.
In 1947, they launched a full-time concert career, at first playing nightclubs, then quickly moving up to playing classical music with orchestral backing. Between 1950 and 1980, they were a major American
easy listening act, and scored four big U.S. hits: "Theme From The Apartment
" (Pop #10), "Theme From Exodus" (Pop #2), "Tonight" (Pop #8), and "Midnight Cowboy" (Pop #10). They performed and recorded regularly with pops orchestras popular standards by George Gershwin
, Jerome Kern
, Cole Porter
, Richard Rodgers
and others. In 1973, they did the Hollywood Radio Theater theme for the Rod Serling radio drama series, The Zero Hour
.
The duo also experimented with prepared piano
s, adding paper, sticks, rubber, wood blocks, metal bars, chains, glass, mallets, and other found objects to piano string beds. In this way they were able to produce a variety of bizarre sounds that sometimes resembled percussion instruments, and at other times resulted in special effects that sounded as if they were electronically synthesized.
Both men were initiated as honorary members of Tau Kappa Epsilon
at Central State University (now University of Central Oklahoma) while on tour.
Ferrante and Teicher ceased performing in 1989 and retired to Longboat Key and Siesta Key, respectively, both close to each other on the west coast of Florida. They continued to play together occasionally at a local piano store.
CDs of their music, some of it not previously released, have continued to appear.
Louis Teicher died of a heart attack
in August 2008, three weeks before his 84th birthday. Arthur Ferrante died of natural causes
on September 19, 2009 at the age of 88 (he had once said he wanted to live one year for each piano key). Arthur is survived by his wife, Jena; his daughter, Brenda Eberhardt; and two granddaughters.
Career
Arthur Ferrante (September 7, 1921, New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
– September 19, 2009), and Louis Teicher
Louis Teicher
Louis Milton Teicher was an American piano player, half of the duo Ferrante & Teicher.Teicher died of heart failure at his summer home. He was 83....
(August 24, 1924, Wilkes-Barre
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
Wilkes-Barre is a city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, the county seat of Luzerne County. It is at the center of the Wyoming Valley area and is one of the principal cities in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area, which had a population of 563,631 as of the 2010 Census...
, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
– August 3, 2008) met while studying at the Juilliard School
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...
of Music in New York. Musical prodigies, they began performing as a piano duo while still in school. After graduating, they both joined the Juilliard faculty.
Steven Tyler
Steven Tyler
Steven Tyler is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, best known as the frontman and lead singer of the Boston-based rock band Aerosmith, in which he also plays the harmonica, and occasional piano and percussion. He is known as the "Demon of Screamin'", due to his high screams...
of Aerosmith
Aerosmith
Aerosmith is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "The Bad Boys from Boston" and "America's Greatest Rock and Roll Band". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based hard rock, has come to also incorporate elements of pop, heavy metal, and rhythm and blues, and has inspired many...
relates the story that in the 1950s the two students practiced in the home of his grandmother Constance Neidhart Tallarico.
In 1947, they launched a full-time concert career, at first playing nightclubs, then quickly moving up to playing classical music with orchestral backing. Between 1950 and 1980, they were a major American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
easy listening act, and scored four big U.S. hits: "Theme From The Apartment
The Apartment
The Apartment is a 1960 American comedy-drama film produced and directed by Billy Wilder, and starring Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, and Fred MacMurray. It was Wilder's follow-up to the enormously popular Some Like It Hot and, like its predecessor, was a commercial and critical hit, grossing $25...
" (Pop #10), "Theme From Exodus" (Pop #2), "Tonight" (Pop #8), and "Midnight Cowboy" (Pop #10). They performed and recorded regularly with pops orchestras popular standards by George Gershwin
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...
, Jerome Kern
Jerome Kern
Jerome David Kern was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A...
, Cole Porter
Cole Porter
Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre...
, Richard Rodgers
Richard Rodgers
Richard Charles Rodgers was an American composer of music for more than 900 songs and for 43 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II...
and others. In 1973, they did the Hollywood Radio Theater theme for the Rod Serling radio drama series, The Zero Hour
The Zero Hour (Rod Serling series)
The Zero Hour was a 1973-74 radio drama anthology series hosted by Rod Serling. With tales of mystery, adventure and suspense, the program aired in stereo for two seasons...
.
The duo also experimented with prepared piano
Prepared piano
A prepared piano is a piano that has had its sound altered by placing objects between or on the strings or on the hammers or dampers....
s, adding paper, sticks, rubber, wood blocks, metal bars, chains, glass, mallets, and other found objects to piano string beds. In this way they were able to produce a variety of bizarre sounds that sometimes resembled percussion instruments, and at other times resulted in special effects that sounded as if they were electronically synthesized.
Both men were initiated as honorary members of Tau Kappa Epsilon
Tau Kappa Epsilon
Tau Kappa Epsilon is a college fraternity founded on January 10, 1899 at Illinois Wesleyan University with chapters in the United States, and Canada, and affiliation with a German fraternity system known as the Corps of the Weinheimer Senioren Convent...
at Central State University (now University of Central Oklahoma) while on tour.
Ferrante and Teicher ceased performing in 1989 and retired to Longboat Key and Siesta Key, respectively, both close to each other on the west coast of Florida. They continued to play together occasionally at a local piano store.
CDs of their music, some of it not previously released, have continued to appear.
Louis Teicher died of a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
in August 2008, three weeks before his 84th birthday. Arthur Ferrante died of natural causes
Death by natural causes
A death by natural causes, as recorded by coroners and on death certificates and associated documents, is one that is primarily attributed to natural agents: usually an illness or an internal malfunction of the body. For example, a person dying from complications from influenza or a heart attack ...
on September 19, 2009 at the age of 88 (he had once said he wanted to live one year for each piano key). Arthur is survived by his wife, Jena; his daughter, Brenda Eberhardt; and two granddaughters.
1950s
- Mississippi Boogie/African Echoes (1952) Joe Davis Records
- Piano Playhouse (1952) MGM E209
- Hi-Fireworks (1953) Columbia CL-573
- Can-Can & Me & Juliet (1954) Columbia CL-6264
- Continental Holiday (1954) Columbia CL-6291
- Rhapsody (1955) Urania URA-78011
- RachmaninoffSergei RachmaninoffSergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...
Two-Piano Suites (1955) Westminster XWN-18059 - Original Variations for Two Pianos (1955) Westminster XWN-18169
- RavelMaurice RavelJoseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...
/DebussyClaude DebussyClaude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
(1955) Westminster XWN-18219 - Encores! (1955) Westminster XWN-18786
- Postcards From Paris (1955) Westminster WP-6001
- Adventure In Carols (1955) Westminster WP-6021
- Soundproof (1956) Westminster WP-6014
- Soundblast (1956) Westminster WP-6041
- Heavenly Sounds In Hi-Fi (1957) ABC ABCS-221 (Re-released in 1966 under the title Heavenly Sounds of Ferrante & Teicher, ABCS-555)
- Ferrante & Teicher With Percussion (1958) ABCS-248 (Re-released in 1966 under the title Temptation, ABCS-561)
- Blast Off (1959) ABCS-285 (Overdubbed with strings and re-released in 1966 under the title We've Got Rhythm, ABCS-556)
- Play Light Classics (1959) ABCS-313
- Themes From Broadway Shows (1959) ABCS-336
1960s
- Dream Concerto (1960) UAS-6103
- Dynamic Twin Pianos (1960) WWS-8504
- The World's Greatest Themes (1960) UAS-6121
- Latin Pianos (1960) UAS-6135
- Golden Piano Hits (1961) WWS-8505
- Goodbye Again OST (1961) UAS-5091
- Love Themes (1961) WWS-8514
- West Side Story (1961) UAS-6166
- Tonight! (1961) UAS-6171
- Golden Themes From Motion Pictures (1962) UAS-6210
- Pianos In Paradise (1962) UAS-6230
- Snowbound (1962) UAS-6233
- The Keys To Her Apartment (1962) UAS-6247
- Love Themes From Cleopatra (1963) UAS-6290
- Holiday For Pianos (1963) UAS-6298
- Concert For Lovers (1963) UAS-6315
- Fifty Fabulous Favorites (1964)UAS-6343
- My Fair LadyMy Fair LadyMy Fair Lady is a musical based upon George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion and with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe...
(1964) UAS-6361 - The People's Choice (1964) UAS-6385
- Springtime (1964) UAS-6406
- By Popular Demand (1965) UAS-6416
- Only The Best (1965) UAS-6434
- A Rage To Live OST (1965) UAS-5130
- The Ferrante & Teicher Concert-Part 1 (1965) UAS-6444
- The Ferrante & Teicher Concert-Part 2 (1965) UAS-6475
- For Lovers Of All Ages (1966) UAS-6483
- You Asked For It!(1966) UAS-6526
- We Wish You A Merry Christmas (1966) UAS-6536
- The piano artistry (1967) S 21004 - Unart (Canada)
- Our Golden Favorites (1967) UAS-6556
- A Man & A Woman (1967) UAS-6572
- In the Heat Of The Night (1967) UAS-6624
- Live For Life (1967) UAS-6632
- The Painted Desert (1968) UAS-6636
- A Bouquet Of Hits (1968) UAS-6659
- Love In The Generation Gap (1968) UAS-6671
- Listen To the Movies With Ferrante & Teicher (1969) UAS-6701
- Midnight CowboyMidnight CowboyMidnight Cowboy is a 1969 American drama film based on the 1965 novel of the same name by James Leo Herlihy. It was written by Waldo Salt, directed by John Schlesinger, and stars Dustin Hoffman and newcomer Jon Voight in the title role. Notable smaller roles are filled by Sylvia Miles, John...
(1969) UAS-6725
1970s
- Getting Together (1970) UAS-5501
- Love Is A Soft Touch (1970) UAS-6771
- The Best Of Ferrante & Teicher (1970) UAS-73
- The Music Lovers (1971) UAS-6792
- It's Too Late (1971) UAS-5531
- Fiddler On The RoofFiddler on the RoofFiddler on the Roof is a musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in Tsarist Russia in 1905. It is based on Tevye and his Daughters by Sholem Aleichem...
(1972) UAS-5552 - Play The Hit Themes (1972) UAS-5588
- Salute Nashville (1972) UAS-5645
- Hear And Now (1973) UA-LA018F
- The Roaring Twenties (1973) UA-LA072F
- Killing Me SoftlyKilling Me Softly (Ferrante & Teicher album)Killing Me Softly is a United Artists Records album by easy listening duo Ferrante & Teicher.-Track listing:#Also Sprach Zarathustra#Send in the Clowns...
(1974) UA-LA118F - Dial "M" For Music (1974) UA-LA195F
- The Very Best Of Ferrante & Teicher (1974) UA-LA379E
- Greatest Love Themes of the 20th Century (1975) UA-LA101-G2
- In A Soulful Mood (1975) UA-LA227G
- Beautiful, Beautiful (1975) UA-LA316G
- Body & Soul (1975) UA-LA360G
- The Carpenters Songbook (1976) UA-LA490G
- Fill the World With Love (1976) UA-LA547G
- Spirit Of "'76" (1976) UA-LA573G
- Piano Portraits (1977) UA-LA585G
- FeelingsFeelings (Ferrante & Teicher album)Feelings is a United Artists Records album by easy listening duo Ferrante & Teicher.-Track listing:#An Affair to Remember #What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?...
(1977) UA-LA662G - Rocky & Other Knockouts (1977) UA-LA782G
- Star Wars (1978) UA-LA855G
- You Light Up My Life (1978) UA-LA908G
- Supermen (1979) UA-LA941G
- Classical Disco (1979) UA-LA980G
1980s
- 30th Anniversary-On Stage (1984) Avant-Garde (Bainbridge) AVG-1001
- A Few Of Our Favorites-On Stage (1985) Avant-Garde (Bainbridge) AVG-1002
- American Fantasy-On Stage (1986) Avant-Garde (Bainbridge) AVG-1003
- Dos Amigos (1988) Avant-Garde (Bainbridge) AVG-1004
1990s
- 40th Anniversary-On Stage (1992) Avant-Garde (Intersound) AVG-1005
- All-Time Great Motion Picture Themes (1993) 0777-7-98823-2
- The Ferrante & Teicher Collection (1998) Avant-Garde (Varese Sarabande Vintage) AVG-1006
2000s
- The Sound Of Music (2000) Avant-Garde/Varese Sarabande Records AVG-1007
- Denizens Of The Deep (2001) Avant-Garde /Varese Sarabande Records 302 066 261 2
- Can-Can and Me & Juliet/Continental Holiday (2001) Sony/Collectables Records CDL-CD-6692
- Christmas Is So Special (2000) 724352905720
- Great 1970's Motion Picture Themes (2001) 72435-30518-2
- America Forever (2002) Avant-Garde/Varese Sarabande Records 302 066 312 2
Track appearances
- Filme, Die Man Nicht Vergisst United Artists Records
- Music To Read James Bond By United Artists Records
- Dusty FingersDusty FingersDusty Fingers is the name of a series of compilation records of songs that are widely admired as breakbeats collected by Bronx, NY DJ and collector Danny Dann the Beat Mann. Some of the songs featured contain "open breaks" which are solo drum passages which enable DJs to easily transition into them...
Volume One "Lady Love" Strictly Breaks Records 1997 - Ultra-Lounge - Christmas Cocktails Part Two Capitol Records 1997
- Ultra-Lounge Vol. 16 - Mondo Hollywood Capitol Records 1997
- The Best Of Blue Juice Blue Note 2001
- Hard To Find Orchestral Instrumentals II Eric Records 2003
External links
- Official website
- [ Ferrante & Teicher biography at All Music.com]
- Ferrante & Teicher discography