Goodbye to Gabriele Ferro, the conductor was 88 years old

A great conductor and composer, Gabriele Ferro had the ability to inhabit music from the inside, to recognize, behind every sound, the invisible plot of intentions, emotions, architectures and silences that constitute the language of a composer. For the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Gabriele Ferro represents something that goes beyond the relationship, albeit very profound, between a great artist and a cultural institution. It is part of history, of identity, of that musical memory that does not only belong to the past, but continues to generate the present and illuminate the future. The title of Honorary Music Director expresses precisely this belonging, a bond that time does not consume, but makes more intense. His passing leaves us today with deep pain and a sense of emptiness that is difficult to express. We lose a musician who has gone through the history of music with an inexhaustible curiosity for the mystery of artistic creation, with that ability typical of the great Masters to transform knowledge into imagination and imagination into a new form of knowledge. Gabriele accompanied the Teatro Massimo through fundamental seasons of its artistic life, contributing to building that cultural depth and international vocation that today constitute a heritage of our institution. Only a few days ago, on 11 October, he was still on the podium of our Theatre, sharing his extraordinary musical vision with the Orchestra and the public, in a program that also included one of his compositions. Today that moment takes on an even deeper meaning. It gives us the image of an artist who continued to live in music, through music, until his last days, and gives us a memory that we will cherish with particular emotion. Thank you Master Ferro. Thank you Gabriele, concludes Superintendent Betta.

The Maestro's funeral will be celebrated in the Church of Santa Lucia, Via Enrico Albanese, on Saturday 31 October at 10 am.

San Carlo remembers Gabriele Ferro, 'he left a profound mark'.

A place where you feel that the history of music has passed. This is how Gabriele Ferro described his bond with the Teatro di San Carlo, of which he was musical director from 1999 to 2004, continuing in the following seasons to intertwine his artistic path with the life of the Neapolitan Massimo. San Carlo, with the superintendent and president Anfols Fulvio Macciardi, remembers him with emotion and joins in the condolences for the passing of an artist who left a profound mark on the world of music.

Biscardi (Santa Cecilia), 'Ferro director of extraordinary sensitivity'.

With the passing of Gabriele Ferro, the world of music loses a conductor of extraordinary sensitivity, a refined interpreter and a musician of great culture. Massimo Biscardi, president-superintendent of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia, thus remembers the master who died today in Palermo. An academic of Santa Cecilia since 2004, Ferro has been a protagonist for over half a century of Italian and international musical life, distinguishing himself for the rigor of his interpretations and for his constant attention to the music of our time, underlines Biscardi, recalling the very deep bond with Sicily and with Palermo, a city to which he dedicated an important part of his artistic activity and which he contributed to enriching with his talent and passion.