Background
Howard Ferguson was born on October 21, 1908, in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He was a son of Stanley and Frances Ferguson.
Rockport, Holywood BT18 0DD, United Kingdom
Rockport School where Howard Ferguson studied.
Prince Consort Rd, South Kensington, London SW7 2BS, United Kingdom
Royal College of Music where Howard Ferguson studied.
Deans Yard, 17A, London SW1P 3PB, United Kingdom
Westminster School where Howard Ferguson studied from 1922 to 1924.
(This standard work is an introduction to the interpretati...)
This standard work is an introduction to the interpretation of keyboard music from the fourteenth to the nineteenth century.
https://www.amazon.com/Keyboard-Interpretation-14th-19th-Century/dp/0193184192/?tag=2022091-20
1975
(The letters that passed, on an almost daily basis, betwee...)
The letters that passed, on an almost daily basis, between the composers Howard Ferguson and Gerald Finzi provide not only a fascinating commentary on the British musical scene of the period 1926-1956, but also what amounts to a unique dual-biography of two remarkable, though very different, personalities.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0851158234/?tag=2022091-20
2001
Howard Ferguson was born on October 21, 1908, in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He was a son of Stanley and Frances Ferguson.
Howard Ferguson studied at Rockport School, where he started to show his musical talent. Then he studied at Westminster School from 1922 to 1924. At this time the pianist Harold Samuel took notice of Ferguson and encouraged his parents to allow him to travel to London to become his pupil. Ferguson entered the Royal College of Music in 1924 to study composition.
In 1959 he received an honorary doctorate from Queen’s University in Belfast
In the musical world, Ferguson was first noticed and taken seriously in 1932, when his Violin Sonata No. 1 was performed by Menges and Samuel. Ferguson started his career as a composer in 1934 when he gave the first performance of his work Two Ballads for Baritone and Orchestra. He wrote twenty other compositions, including various sonatas, a concerto, and an octet. Later Ferguson had met Myra Hess, and at the outbreak of the Second World War, he was enlisted by her to help run the series of concerts at the National Gallery which did so much to maintain wartime morale in London.
Between 1948-1963 he taught composition at the Royal Academy of Music; many of his students ended up becoming accomplished composers in their own right. In the meantime, he was still composing, including a Second Violin Sonata and Piano Concerto. In 1975 he published a book Keyboard Interpretation from the 14th to the 19th Century: An Introduction. Ferguson continued to perform recitals during and after his composing career. He collaborated and performed with the pianist Denis Matthews and the Violinist Yfrah Neaman and performed worldwide. In his later years, he lived in Barton Road in Cambridge.
(The letters that passed, on an almost daily basis, betwee...)
2001(This standard work is an introduction to the interpretati...)
1975Quotes from others about the person
Ferguson composed with "style and warmth" and was at least as good a songwriter as Finzi or Samuel Barber.