Dominick Ferrara

Position
Associate Professor
Affiliated Departments
Faculty Bio E-Mail
Telephone
617-747-3169

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Career Highlights
  • Director of the Day Sessions Summer Program and Conductor of the Berklee Symphonic Winds
  • Performances with the Boston Philharmonic, the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra, the Portland (ME) Symphony, the United States Coast Guard Band and Chamber Players, Bernadette Peters, and the Temptations
  • Publications in the New Jersey Journal of Supervision and Curriculum Development and the Journal of Band Research
  • Sixteen years of teaching experience in the New Jersey public schools at the middle and high school levels
Awards
  • Recipient of 1990 New Jersey Department of Education Distinguished Teacher Candidate Award
  • 2000 New Jersey Governor's Teacher Recognition Award
  • Finalist for the 2005 Princeton University Prize for Distinguished Secondary School Teaching
  • Recipient of the 2008 Berklee College of Music Professional Education Division Dean's Award for Teaching Excellence
Education
  • B.A., Montclair State University, summa cum laude
  • M.A.T., Rutgers University
  • D.M.A., Rutgers University, with special studies in educational administration/supervision and instrumental conducting 
In Their Own Words

"I spent sixteen years teaching in New Jersey middle and high schools. One of my goals is to train future teachers—to keep it going, pass it along to next generation."

"I try to be very prepared going into class, but also very flexible to the needs of the students throughout the course. Being really attuned to the students and what's really going on in the class is probably one of my strengths."

"I've taught every grade from the fourth up. Obviously the students at Berklee are much more advanced. But the students—there's really not that much of a difference. The fifth graders who are conscientious and get their work done and are really motivated are like the college kids who are conscientious and motivated. It's interesting how the personalities are the same, just older and more advanced."

"My primary instrument is bassoon, and I play contrabassoon. I also double on sax and clarinet. Most of my training is classical, although not all of my gig experience necessarily falls into the classical realm. I was born, educated, bred, the whole thing, in New Jersey. I'm a Northeast person, so the opportunity to come to Boston was great."

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