Biography
Originally from Santa Monica, California, flutist Francesca Ferrara has called the East Coast home for the past ten years. Her passion for collaboration and sharing new music with a wider community is seen throughout her performance career, as well as in her work in concert production and arts administration.
Francesca was a finalist in the 2021 New York Flute Club Competition and has performed with a number of ensembles around NYC, including Argento New Music Project, Access Contemporary Music, Dance Theatre
of Harlem, ShoutHouse, Cygnus Ensemble, Unheard-Of Ensemble, Princeton Pro-Musica Orchestra, and Camerata Washington Heights Orchestra. In the spring of 2020 and 2022, Francesca was a performer in residence for the Louis Moreau Institute in New Orleans and in August of 2018, she was a resident fellow in the Contemporary Performance Institute at Brandeis University. Francesca has performed in a number of music festivals including the Tribeca New Music Festival and the Rosini Club's summer music festival on Nantucket. As a committed advocate for new music, she frequently collaborates with composers and has premiered over seventy-five new works.
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Along with performing, Francesca teaches private lessons and is on the faculty of Willan Academy of Music. In 2019, Francesca taught a masterclass to the flute studio of California State University, Sacramento. During the summer of 2015, she was a staff member at Greenwood Music Camp in Cummington, Massachusetts.
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In 2019, she co-created Blank Canvas at Future Space, a concert series dedicated to presenting diverse programs by contemporary composers and expanding audiences for the featured ensembles. Incorporating her love for food into her music, Francesca produced Common Senses in 2018, which was a “concert” that brought chefs and composers together to create a multi-sensory experience.
Francesca is currently the Community Programs Coordinator for Orchestra of St. Luke's, as well as a Manager for New York Youth Symphony's Chamber Music Program.
Francesca holds a Master of Music degree in Contemporary Performance from Manhattan School of Music where she was a student of Tara O’Connor, and a Bachelor of Music degree from The Boston Conservatory where she studied with Sarah Brady.
