Ralph Farris
Encyclopedia
Ralph Farris is an American
violist
, violin
ist, composer
, arranger
, producer
and conductor. He specializes in new music
and is a founding member of the string quartet
ETHEL
.
Farris was born in Boston, Massachusetts
in 1970, the son of musicians, Nancy DuCette Farris and Ralph Howard Farris. He began studying music at the age of 3, beginning with recorder
and piano
, moving on to violin at age six. As a boy soprano
, he was featured as a soloist
in several of his parents' Ralph Farris Chorale productions, including Leonard Bernstein
's Chichester Psalms
, Pie Jesu
from Gabriel Fauré
's Requiem
, and in the title role of Gian Carlo Menotti
's Amahl and the Night Visitors
.
From 1976 to 1982 Farris attended the Longy School of Music
and was a member of the New England Conservatory of Music
's Youth Philharmonic Orchestra
under Benjamin Zander
from 1982 to 1989. In 1983 Farris entered Walnut Hill School
for the Arts, where he graduated in 1989. Between 1989 and 1991 Farris was a three-year recipient of a Tanglewood
Fellowship, where he won both most outstanding violist and most outstanding participant. He participated in the Spoleto Festival USA
/Festival dei Due Mondi
in 1992. In 1995 he attended Dartington International Summer School, in the conducting program under the tutelage of Maestro Diego Masson
. Farris holds B.M. and M.M. degrees (accelerated program) from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Samuel Rhodes, graduating in 1994. He was awarded the school's William Schuman Prize in 1994.
As the principal violist
of The Juilliard Orchestra
, Farris performed at Carnegie Hall
in Roger Daltrey's
1994 A Celebration: The Music of Pete Townshend and The Who
and became the Musical Director for the tour of the same name. He played the fiddle
solo in Baba O'Riley
. Farris is an original member of the orchestra Broadway
production of The Lion King
, playing violin and viola, and has served as an assistant conductor for the show. He has recorded with and/or arranged for a wide variety of well known jazz, classical, rock and country musicians. With his string quartet he tours extensively and has performed on the stages of several major international concert halls. He has worked as music supervisor, acting coach, and contractor for luminaries in the diverse industries of film, dance and music, including; Martin Scorsese
, Merce Cunningham
and Gorillaz
.
Farris has shown a keen interest in arts education. Through ETHEL's Foundation for the Arts, founded by the quartet in 2002, he has taught master classes at numerous universities and music conservatories
. In 2007 he recorded a segment for New York's WNYC
about his experience working with young composers in the Native American Composers Apprenticeship Project
(NACAP), an outreach program in which ETHEL has been an artist-in-residence since 2005. NACAP is a 2011 semi-finalist for the President's Council on the Arts and the Humanities Coming up Taller Award. In 2010 and 2011, he was a guest composer with the Eastport Strings, a youth ensemble in Eastport, Maine
, hometown to Farris's grandfather. He is a frequent lecturer at Juilliard and currently serves as a member of the board of trustees
of his alma mater
Walnut Hill.
Farris was the lead coordinator of the volunteer musicians who performed daily at New York City's St. Paul's Chapel
("The Miracle Church") during the 9/11 Relief Effort
. In December 2001, he conducted a group of Broadway actors and singers in a radio simulcast of holiday songs at Ground Zero
and Times Square
. His string quartet arrangement of The Star-Spangled Banner
was performed at the World Trade Center site on the one-year anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks by the St. Paul's Chapel String Quartet and was internationally televised. The WNYC program Soundcheck featured Farris as one of four guests for a project called Measuring Time: Music for 9/11/11 marking the tenth anniversary of 9/11.
One of Farris's current projects is the setting of several works by the poet Harry Smith
to music. The first of these pieces, Solstice People, was featured in the 2007 In the House of ETHEL: Solstice concert at the World Financial Center's
Winter Garden
.
He lives in New York City
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
violist
Viola
The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
, violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
ist, composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, arranger
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
, producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
and conductor. He specializes in new music
Contemporary classical music
Contemporary classical music can be understood as belonging to the period that started in the mid-1970s with the retreat of modernism. However, the term may also be employed in a broader sense to refer to all post-1945 modern musical forms.-Categorization:...
and is a founding member of the string quartet
String quartet
A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...
ETHEL
Ethel (string quartet)
ETHEL is a New York based string quartet that was co-founded in 1998 by Ralph Farris, viola; Dorothy Lawson, cello; Todd Reynolds, violin; and Mary Rowell, violin. Unlike most string quartets, ETHEL plays with amplification and integrates improvisation into its performances...
.
Farris was born in Boston, Massachusetts
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
in 1970, the son of musicians, Nancy DuCette Farris and Ralph Howard Farris. He began studying music at the age of 3, beginning with recorder
Recorder
The recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes—whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle. The recorder is end-blown and the mouth of the instrument is constricted by a wooden plug, known as a block or fipple...
and piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, moving on to violin at age six. As a boy soprano
Boy soprano
A boy soprano is a young male singer with an unchanged voice in the soprano range. Although a treble, or choirboy, may also be considered to be a boy soprano, the more colloquial term boy soprano is generally only used for boys who sing, perform, or record as soloists, and who may not necessarily...
, he was featured as a soloist
Solo (music)
In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...
in several of his parents' Ralph Farris Chorale productions, including Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
's Chichester Psalms
Chichester Psalms
Chichester Psalms is a choral work by Leonard Bernstein for boy treble or countertenor, solo quartet, choir and orchestra...
, Pie Jesu
Pie Jesu
Pie Jesu is a motet derived from the final couplet of the Dies irae and often included in musical settings of the Requiem Mass. The settings of the Requiem Mass by Luigi Cherubini, Gabriel Fauré, Maurice Duruflé, John Rutter, Karl Jenkins and Fredrik Sixten include a Pie Jesu as an independent...
from Gabriel Fauré
Gabriel Fauré
Gabriel Urbain Fauré was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th century composers...
's Requiem
Requiem (Fauré)
Gabriel Fauré composed his Requiem in D minor, Op. 48 between 1887 and 1890. This choral–orchestral setting of the Roman Catholic Mass for the Dead is the best known of his large works. The most famous movement is the soprano aria Pie Jesu...
, and in the title role of Gian Carlo Menotti
Gian Carlo Menotti
Gian Carlo Menotti was an Italian-American composer and librettist. Although he often referred to himself as an American composer, he kept his Italian citizenship. He wrote the classic Christmas opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors, among about two dozen other operas intended to appeal to popular...
's Amahl and the Night Visitors
Amahl and the Night Visitors
Amahl and the Night Visitors is an opera in one act by Gian Carlo Menotti with an original English libretto by the composer. It was commissioned by NBC and first performed by the NBC Opera Theatre on December 24, 1951, in New York City at NBC studio 8H in Rockefeller Center, where it was broadcast...
.
From 1976 to 1982 Farris attended the Longy School of Music
Longy School of Music
The Longy School of Music of Bard College is a conservatory located near Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1915, it was one of the four independent degree-granting music schools in the Boston region along with the New England Conservatory, Berklee College of Music, and Boston...
and was a member of the New England Conservatory of Music
New England Conservatory of Music
The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, is the oldest independent school of music in the United States.The conservatory is home each year to 750 students pursuing undergraduate and graduate studies along with 1400 more in its Preparatory School as well as the School of...
's Youth Philharmonic Orchestra
Youth orchestra
Youth orchestra may refer to:-Australia:*Adelaide Youth Orchestra*Melbourne String Ensemble*Queensland Youth Orchestras*SBS Radio and Television Youth Orchestra*Sydney Youth Orchestra...
under Benjamin Zander
Benjamin Zander
Benjamin Zander is an American conductor from the United Kingdom.-External links:* *-Interviews:* * * *...
from 1982 to 1989. In 1983 Farris entered Walnut Hill School
Walnut Hill School
Walnut Hill School for the Arts is a private boarding school for the arts located in Natick, Massachusetts.-Boarding School:Walnut Hill was founded in 1893 as a college preparatory school for women and a feeder school to Wellesley College. It became coeducational and arts-focused in the late 1970s...
for the Arts, where he graduated in 1989. Between 1989 and 1991 Farris was a three-year recipient of a Tanglewood
Tanglewood
Tanglewood is an estate and music venue in Lenox and Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It is the home of the annual summer Tanglewood Music Festival and the Tanglewood Jazz Festival, and has been the Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer home since 1937. It was the venue of the Berkshire Festival.- History...
Fellowship, where he won both most outstanding violist and most outstanding participant. He participated in the Spoleto Festival USA
Spoleto Festival USA
Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina, is one of the world's major performing arts festivals. It was founded in 1977 by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Gian Carlo Menotti, who sought to establish a counterpart to the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy...
/Festival dei Due Mondi
Festival dei Due Mondi
The Festival dei Due Mondi ' is an annual summer music and opera festival held each June to early July in Spoleto, Italy, since its founding by composer Gian Carlo Menotti in 1958...
in 1992. In 1995 he attended Dartington International Summer School, in the conducting program under the tutelage of Maestro Diego Masson
Diego Masson
Diego Masson is a French conductor, composer, and percussionist.The son of artist André Masson and brother of the singer and actor Luís Masson, Diego Masson studied piano and composition at the Paris Conservatoire...
. Farris holds B.M. and M.M. degrees (accelerated program) from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Samuel Rhodes, graduating in 1994. He was awarded the school's William Schuman Prize in 1994.
As the principal violist
Principal (music)
The principal musician in an orchestra or other large musical ensemble is the leader of the group of musicians playing that instrument. Every instrumental group has a principal who is generally responsible for leading the group and playing orchestral solos. The violins are divided into two groups,...
of The Juilliard Orchestra
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...
, Farris performed at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
in Roger Daltrey's
Roger Daltrey
Roger Harry Daltrey, CBE , is an English singer and actor, best known as the founder and lead singer of English rock band The Who. He has maintained a musical career as a solo artist and has also worked in the film industry, acting in a large number of films, theatre and television roles and also...
1994 A Celebration: The Music of Pete Townshend and The Who
A Celebration: The Music of Pete Townshend and The Who
A Celebration: The Music of Pete Townshend and The Who, also known as Daltrey Sings Townshend, is a music event and later album documenting a two-night concert at Carnegie Hall in 1994. It broke Carnegie Hall's two day box office gross record, and was the fastest sell-out in the historic venue's...
and became the Musical Director for the tour of the same name. He played the fiddle
Fiddle
The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
solo in Baba O'Riley
Baba O'Riley
"Baba O'Riley" is a song written by Pete Townshend for the English rock band The Who. Roger Daltrey sings most of the song, with Pete Townshend singing the middle eight: "Don't cry/don't raise your eye/it's only teenaged wasteland"...
. Farris is an original member of the orchestra Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
production of The Lion King
The Lion King (musical)
The Lion King is a musical based on the 1994 Disney animated film of the same name with music by Elton John and lyrics by Tim Rice along with the musical score created by Hans Zimmer with choral arrangements by Lebo M. Directed by Julie Taymor, the musical features actors in animal costumes as well...
, playing violin and viola, and has served as an assistant conductor for the show. He has recorded with and/or arranged for a wide variety of well known jazz, classical, rock and country musicians. With his string quartet he tours extensively and has performed on the stages of several major international concert halls. He has worked as music supervisor, acting coach, and contractor for luminaries in the diverse industries of film, dance and music, including; Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
, Merce Cunningham
Merce Cunningham
Mercier "Merce" Philip Cunningham was an American dancer and choreographer who was at the forefront of the American avant-garde for more than 50 years. Throughout much of his life, Cunningham was considered one of the greatest creative forces in American dance...
and Gorillaz
Gorillaz
Gorillaz is an English musical project created in 1998 by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett. This project consists of Gorillaz music itself and an extensive fictional universe depicting a "virtual band" of cartoon characters...
.
Farris has shown a keen interest in arts education. Through ETHEL's Foundation for the Arts, founded by the quartet in 2002, he has taught master classes at numerous universities and music conservatories
Music school
The term music school refers to an educational institution specialized in the study, training and research of music.Different terms refer to this concept such as school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department or conservatory.Music instruction can be provided...
. In 2007 he recorded a segment for New York's WNYC
WNYC
WNYC is a set of call letters shared by a pair of co-owned, non-profit, public radio stations located in New York City.WNYC broadcasts on the AM band at 820 kHz, and WNYC-FM is at 93.9 MHz. Both stations are members of National Public Radio and carry distinct, but similar news/talk programs...
about his experience working with young composers in the Native American Composers Apprenticeship Project
Native American Composers Apprenticeship Project
Founded in 2001, the Native American Composers Apprenticeship Project is an outreach program of the Grand Canyon Music Festival that is dedicated to teaching Native American young people to compose concert music. Each year, young musicians work with a Native American composer and a string quartet...
(NACAP), an outreach program in which ETHEL has been an artist-in-residence since 2005. NACAP is a 2011 semi-finalist for the President's Council on the Arts and the Humanities Coming up Taller Award. In 2010 and 2011, he was a guest composer with the Eastport Strings, a youth ensemble in Eastport, Maine
Eastport, Maine
Eastport is a small city in Washington County, Maine, United States. The population was 1,640 at the 2000 census. The principal island is Moose Island, which is connected to the mainland by causeway...
, hometown to Farris's grandfather. He is a frequent lecturer at Juilliard and currently serves as a member of the board of trustees
Board of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
of his alma mater
Alma mater
Alma mater , pronounced ), was used in ancient Rome as a title for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele, and in Christianity for the Virgin Mary.-General term:...
Walnut Hill.
Farris was the lead coordinator of the volunteer musicians who performed daily at New York City's St. Paul's Chapel
St. Paul's Chapel
St. Paul's Chapel, is an Episcopal chapel located at 209 Broadway, between Fulton and Vesey Streets, in lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the oldest surviving church building in Manhattan.-History and architecture:...
("The Miracle Church") during the 9/11 Relief Effort
Rescue and recovery effort after the September 11, 2001 attacks
The rescue and recovery effort after the September 11 attacks comprised the local, state and federal agency reaction to the September 11 attacks. The unprecedented events of that day elicited the largest response of local emergency and rescue personnel to assist in the evacuation of the two towers...
. In December 2001, he conducted a group of Broadway actors and singers in a radio simulcast of holiday songs at Ground Zero
World Trade Center site
The World Trade Center site , also known as "Ground Zero" after the September 11 attacks, sits on in Lower Manhattan in New York City...
and Times Square
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets...
. His string quartet arrangement of The Star-Spangled Banner
The Star-Spangled Banner
"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States of America. The lyrics come from "Defence of Fort McHenry", a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, Francis Scott Key, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy ships...
was performed at the World Trade Center site on the one-year anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks by the St. Paul's Chapel String Quartet and was internationally televised. The WNYC program Soundcheck featured Farris as one of four guests for a project called Measuring Time: Music for 9/11/11 marking the tenth anniversary of 9/11.
One of Farris's current projects is the setting of several works by the poet Harry Smith
Harry Smith (poet)
Harry Joseph Smith is a poet, editor and essayist who divides his time between Maine and New York City.- Biography :Educated at Brown University, Smith first became known in the small press world as the editor of The Smith, a literary magazine and small press founded in the mid-1960s...
to music. The first of these pieces, Solstice People, was featured in the 2007 In the House of ETHEL: Solstice concert at the World Financial Center's
World Financial Center
The World Financial Center is a complex of buildings across West Street from the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan in New York City, overlooking the Hudson River. This complex is home to offices of companies including Merrill Lynch, RBC Capital Markets, Nomura Group, the Wall Street...
Winter Garden
Winter Garden Atrium
The Winter Garden Atrium is a 10-story glass-vaulted pavilion on Vesey Street in New York City's World Financial Center. Originally constructed in 1988, and substantially rebuilt in 2002, the Atrium houses various plants, trees and flowers, and shops...
.
He lives in New York City
New 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...
.