Education
MA, University of Hartford – Piano Performance
BA, State University of Minas Gerais – Piano Performance
BA, Federal University of Minas Gerais – Industrial Engineering
Brazilian-born pianist Igor Ferreira is a pianist and singer with a multifaceted career that has been presented in many different venues. He has been featured in the Brazilian TV show Segunda Musical on TV ALMG in the years of 2008, 2009 and 2011, being recorded live at the Teatro da Assembléia Legislativa de Minas Gerais, in Belo Horizonte/Brazil. Also, he was the artist who gave the inaugural concert of the Centro Cultural de Eventos Dep. Nárcio Rodrigues, the main cultural center building of the city of Itapagipe/MG. The pianist was a featured performer at the 2017 Arte Livre Festival, at the Clube do Concerto series, at the Concertos de Outono series in 2018 and most importantly, at the 6th Festival de Maio (2018), being invited to perform in a concert dedicated to one of the most important Brazilian composer: Edino Krieger (1928–2022). The composer was in the audience, as his 90th Birthday was being celebrated.
Under tutelage of Prof. Frederic Chiu, he concluded the Master of Music Arts program in Piano Performance at the University of Hartford. His thesis “Six Chants Polonaises de Chopin S.480 by Liszt: A distinguished case of transcribing a composer’s style” analyses Franz Liszt’s piano transcriptions of Frederic Chopin’s Polish songs, and how they showcase what Liszt understands as the main stylistic contributions of Chopin, as well their technical implementation.
As a lyrical tenor, Mr. Ferreira was a tenured member of one of the most important choirs of Brazil, the Coral Lírico de Minas Gerais (CLMG). This is the professional stable symphony/opera choir of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, housed in the Palácio das Artes theater, alongside the state’s orchestra, the Orquestra Sinfônica de Minas Gerais (OSMG). He has taken part in many operatic super-productions such as Carmen, Lucia de Lammermoor, Porgy and Bess, La Traviata, Rigoletto, The Flying Dutchman, Norma and many more. He also performed, with the choir in the inaugural concert of the Sala Minas Gerais, the most acoustic developed room of Latin America, that houses the Orquestra Filarmônica de Minas Gerais (OFMG). He was also part of A Cançāo das Iluminuras, a specialized early-music ensemble with a vast collection of early-music instruments. In 2022, Mr. Ferreira was a soloist alongside the Hartt Symphony Orchestra, performing Haydn’s “Mass in times of war”.
This diversity in formation has made Mr. Ferreira an accomplished teacher, who held a private piano studio for 15 years. Some of his students have been awarded in Brazil and internationally. Many of them were accepted in top-rated Brazilian universities, being placed first in some of the admission processes. As a member of the Suzuki Association of Americas, he has been certified in Suzuki Teacher Training with Prof. Sachiko Isihara. Lastly, he was a Piano Clinician teacher of the Summer 2022 Suzuki Institute.
Teaching Philosophy:
To study Music, especially the piano, is to become a more complete human being. That is the reason I believe so eagerly in the importance of learning Music as one of the basic skills of a child. It is the only art that deals so directly and palpably with rational and analytical aspects on one side, and with the phenomenon of the emotion and the expressiveness on the other. That per se teaches invaluable skills such as perseverance, discipline, in-depth listening (of not only Music, but of others and of oneself), courage, problem-solving, cultural diversity acquisition and empathy.
The Suzuki method is the one that makes sure the child understands and learns the tools to play music in a matter that is personal and thorough, which allows the student to deal with what is usually said to be too unattainable for the young age such as sound quality, refinement of performance, style and artistry. As a Suzuki teacher, I realized that by striving for paving the most thorough path for musicianship, the main gain is not the playing of an instrument with true quality itself (which does come, and is surely welcomed and celebrated), but the enormous transformation that the learning process brings to the child, to its entire family and to society.