Ferrante & Teicher
Ferrante & Teicher were a duo of American pianists known for their clever arrangements of familiar classical pieces, movie soundtracks, and show tunes, as well as their signature style of florid, intricate, and fast-paced piano playing performances.
Career
Arthur Ferrante, and Louis Teicher met while studying at the Juilliard School of Music in New York in 1930. Musical prodigies, they began performing as a piano duo while still in school. After graduating, they joined the Juilliard faculty.
In 1947, they launched a full-time concert career, at first playing nightclubs, then quickly moving up to playing classical music with orchestral backing. Steven Tyler of Aerosmith relates the story that in the 1950s the two students practiced in the home of his grandmother Constance Neidhart Tallarico. Between 1950 and 1980, they were a major American "easy listening" act and scored four big U.S. hits: "Theme from The Apartment", "Theme from Exodus", "Tonight", and "Midnight Cowboy". They performed and recorded regularly with pops orchestras popular standards by George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, the Sherman Brothers and others. In 1973, they did the Hollywood Radio Theater theme for the Rod Serling radio drama series, The Zero Hour.
The duo also experimented with prepared pianos, adding paper, sticks, rubber, wood blocks, metal bars, chains, glass, mallets, and other found objects to piano string beds. In this way they were able to produce a variety of bizarre sounds that sometimes resembled percussion instruments and at other times resulted in special effects that sounded as if they were electronically synthesized.
Both men were initiated as honorary members of Tau Kappa Epsilon at Central State University while on tour.
Ferrante and Teicher ceased performing in 1989 and retired to Longboat Key and Siesta Key, respectively, close to each other on the west coast of Florida. They continued to play together occasionally at a local piano store.
CDs of their music, some of it not previously released, have continued to appear.
Louis Teicher died of a heart attack in August 2008, at age 83. Arthur Ferrante died of natural causes on September 19, 2009, twelve days after his 88th birthday; he had once said he wanted to live one year for each piano key. Arthur was survived by his wife, Jena; his daughter, Brenda Eberhardt; and two granddaughters.
Discography
Albums
1950s
Mississippi Boogie/African Echoes Joe Davis RecordsPiano Playhouse MGM E209Hi-Fireworks Columbia CL-573Can-Can & Me & Juliet Columbia CL-6264Continental Holiday Columbia CL-6291Xmas Hi-Fivories Westminster WL-3044Rhapsody Urania URA-78011Rachmaninoff Two-Piano Suites Westminster XWN-18059Original Variations for Two Pianos Westminster XWN-18169Ravel/Debussy Westminster XWN-18219Encores! Westminster XWN-18786Postcards from Paris Westminster WP-6001Adventure in Carols Westminster WP-6021Soundblast Westminster WP-6041 Heavenly Sounds in Hi-Fi ABC ABCS-221 Soundproof Westminster WP-6014Ferrante & Teicher with Percussion ABCS-248 Blast Off ABCS-285 Play Light Classics ABCS-313Themes from Broadway Shows ABCS-336
1960s
Dream Concerto UAS-6103Dynamic Twin Pianos WWS-8504The World's Greatest Themes UAS-6121Latin Pianos UAS-6135Golden Piano Hits WWS-8505Broadway to Hollywood Columbia CS 8407Goodbye Again OST UAS-5091Love Themes WWS-8514West Side Story UAS-6166Tonight! UAS-6171Golden Themes from Motion Pictures UAS-6210Pianos in Paradise UAS-6230Snowbound UAS-6233The Keys to Her Apartment UAS-6247Love Themes from Cleopatra UAS-6290Holiday for Pianos UAS-6298Concert for Lovers UAS-6315Exotic Love Themes UAS-6340Fifty Fabulous Favorites UAS-6343My Fair Lady UAS-6361The Enchanted World of Ferrante & Teicher UAS-6375The People's Choice UAS-6385Springtime UAS-6406By Popular Demand UAS-6416Only the Best UAS-6434A Rage to Live OST UAS-5130The Ferrante & Teicher Concert—Part 1 UAS-6444The Ferrante & Teicher Concert—Part 2 UAS-6475For Lovers of All Ages UAS-6483You Asked for It! UAS-6526We Wish You a Merry Christmas UAS-6536The Twin Piano Magic Volume 2 ABC-Paramount 559The Piano Artistry S 21004 - Unart Our Golden Favorites UAS-6556A Man & a Woman UAS-6572In the Heat of the Night UAS-6624Live for Life UAS-6632The Painted Desert UAS-6636A Bouquet of Hits UAS-6659Love in the Generation Gap UAS-6671Listen to the Movies with Ferrante & Teicher UAS-6701Midnight Cowboy UAS-6725
1970s
Getting Together UAS-5501 Love Is a Soft Touch UAS-6771The Best of Ferrante & Teicher UAS-73The Music Lovers UAS-6792It's Too Late UAS-5531Fiddler on the Roof UAS-5552Play the Hit Themes UAS-5588Salute Nashville UAS-5645Hear and Now UA-LA018FThe Roaring Twenties UA-LA072FKilling Me Softly UA-LA118FDial "M" for Music UA-LA195FThe Very Best of Ferrante & Teicher UA-LA379EGreatest Love Themes of the 20th Century UA-LA101-G2In a Soulful Mood UA-LA227GBeautiful, Beautiful UA-LA316GBody & Soul UA-LA360GThe Carpenters Songbook UA-LA490GFill the World with Love UA-LA547GSpirit of 76" UA-LA573GPiano Portraits UA-LA585GFeelings UA-LA662GRocky & Other Knockouts UA-LA782GStar Wars UA-LA855GYou Light Up My Life UA-LA908GSupermen UA-LA941GClassical Disco UA-LA980G
1980s
30th Anniversary—On Stage Avant-Garde AVG-1001A Few of Our Favorites—On Stage Avant-Garde AVG-1002American Fantasy—On Stage Avant-Garde AVG-1003Dos Amigos Avant-Garde AVG-1004
1990s
40th Anniversary—On Stage Avant-Garde AVG-1005All-Time Great Motion Picture Themes 0777-7-98823-2The Ernie Kovacs Record Collection Varèse Sarabande – VSD-5789The Ferrante & Teicher Collection Avant-Garde AVG-1006
2000s
The Sound of Music Avant-Garde/Varèse Sarabande Records AVG-1007Denizens of the Deep Avant-Garde /Varèse Sarabande Records 302 066 261 2Can-Can and Me & Juliet/Continental Holiday Sony/Collectables Records CDL-CD-6692Christmas Is So Special 724352905720Great 1970's Motion Picture Themes 72435-30518-2America Forever Avant-Garde/Varèse Sarabande Records 302 066 312 2
Track appearances
Filme, Die Man Nicht Vergisst, United Artists RecordsGreat Motion Picture Themes, United Artists Records, 1960Music to Read James Bond By, United Artists Records, 1965Music to Read James Bond By Vol. 2, United Artists Records, 1965 Dusty Fingers Volume One, "Lady Love", Strictly Breaks Records, 1997Ultra-Lounge—Christmas Cocktails Part Two, Capitol Records, 1997Ultra-Lounge Vol. 16—Mondo Hollywood, Capitol Records, 1997The Best of Blue Juice, Blue Note, 2001Hard to Find Orchestral Instrumentals II, Eric Records, 2003