NEXT PERFORMANCE
This season, Mr. Ferring returns to the Ensemble of the Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Performances during the season include Older Brother in Dead Man Walking and Tchaplitsky in Queen of Spades while covering Count Almaviva in Il barbière di Siviglia, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, and Major Domo in Queen of Spades. Future seasons include an anticipated debut with Santa Fe Opera as Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, as well as his company debuts in the same role with North Carolina Opera and New Orleans Opera. In concert, Mr. Ferring will join the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra for Händel’s Messiah.
NEXT PERFORMANCE
This season, Mr. Ferring returns to the Ensemble of the Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Performances during the season include Older Brother in Dead Man Walking and Tchaplitsky in Queen of Spades while covering Count Almaviva in Il barbière di Siviglia, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, and Major Domo in Queen of Spades. Future seasons include an anticipated debut with Santa Fe Opera as Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, as well as his company debuts in the same role with North Carolina Opera and New Orleans Opera. In concert, Mr. Ferring will join the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra for Händel’s Messiah.
ABOUT ERIC
This season, Mr. Ferring releases his solo debut album, No Choice but Love, with his dear friend and collaborative pianist Madeline Slettedahl with Lexicon Classics. He makes a return to Opéra de Rouen Normandie as Lysander in A Midsummer Nights Dream, as well as debuts as Tamino at Opéra national du Rhin, and Lurcanio in Ariodante at Opéra national de Paris (Palais Garnier). In concert, Mr. Ferring sings with Opera Edwardsville, and in recital, Mr. Ferring is the Jordan Concert Artist at Drake University. Mr. Ferring records his second album, a chamber music album with Madeline Slettedahl and French string quartet, Quatuor Agate, in June entitled We have tomorrow.
"WHERE WORDS FAIL, MUSIC SPEAKS."
While I was in graduate school, I was asked to write a personal mission statement which I recently re-discovered. “I inspire action as a passionate creative force.” I try to keep those words in my head each day as I engage with our ever-changing world. Who am I? Who do I want to be today? Tomorrow? Next year? I’m newly discovering who it is I am and want to be each day, aren’t you? Every show, every rehearsal process helps define and redefine who I am as an artist, what I find important, and how and who I want my music to touch. I want the art we create on the operatic stage or on the recital stage to transform our world into the extraordinary place we know it can be.
Music is a means of expression, an escape from reality, and a healing force. Music has helped me discover my voice as a singer of course, but it also helped uncover my passions in the social/political realm. I use my voice to be an activist and an advocate for those whose voices are ignored or can’t be heard. We as artists must utilize our gifts to be catalysts for change, empowering our networks, and inspiring them to do what they never thought possible.
I am an artist with a history of love, pain, joy, and sorrow. I am an artist whose path has been built with the help of hundreds of others to whom I dedicate my pursuit of this career. I am an artist who sincerely hopes I can do my part in bettering this divided, hurting world, if even for just a few moments. One of my favorite quotes that I keep in my wallet is “Where words fail, music speaks.” It’s my privilege to help the music of generations to speak, and in letting it be heard, it is my hope that you will join me in doing more. Open your ears and listen more, open your eyes and see more, open your mind and learn more, and most importantly, open your heart and love more.
