American tenor and voice teacher JASON FERRANTE has been praised by Opera News for “singing up a stylish storm” and by the Sarasota Herald Tribune as “one of the best voices I have heard in a very long time.” In the past two seasons, Ferrante appeared as Beadle Bamford in a new production of Sweeney Todd with Opera Omaha, Don Basilio and Don Curzio in Le Nozze di Figaro in his debut with both Virginia Opera and Knoxville Opera, the Fourth Jew in Salome in his debut with Tulsa Opera, the tenor soloist in Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with the Salisbury Symphony and a debut with the Palm Beach Symphony as tenor soloist in Mozart’s Requiem conducted by Gerard Schwarz. Upcoming engagements include a debut with Pensacola Opera as Arturo in Lucia di Lamermoor, and debuts with Hawaii Opera Theater, Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera and Piedmont Opera in addition to a busy schedule of masterclasses and lessons with training programs and schools throughout the country.
With two decades of experience on the operatic stage in over 80 different roles and on the concert stage as a tenor soloist , Ferrante also maintains a career as a sought-after voice teacher, having taught singers who appear on the greatest stages of the world as soloists, recording artists, and winners in major competitions. As an administrator, he leads the classical voice discipline for YoungArts and is currently on the voice faculty of several American young artist training programs. In 2021, Ferrante served as the Director of the Wolf Trap Opera Studio and continues his role as voice faculty at Wolf Trap, and the training programs at Portland Opera, Minnesota Opera, Pensacola Opera, Brevard, Banff Centre for the Arts and Nashville Opera.
Ferrante’s most recent performances also include a debut with the New World Symphony as the tenor soloist in Nico Muhly’s Keep in Touch conducted by the composer, Beppe in Pagliacci with Opera Omaha, Bardolfo in Falstaff with Intermountain Opera, a debut with Nashville Opera as Little Bat in Susannah, a return to the Key Chorale as the tenor soloist in Elijah, his first performances as Remendado in Carmen with the Bar Harbor Music Festival and Little Victor in Kevin Puts and Mark Campbell’s Elizabeth Cree, a role he created for Opera Philadelphia and reprised with Chicago Opera Theater.
On the international stage, Ferrante made his European debut at Teatro Comunale di Bologna as Beadle Bamford in Sweeney Todd. The production also appeared at Teatro Pavarotti in Modena, Teatro Rossini in Lugo, and Teatro Municipale in Piacenza. He was the Tenor Ghost in Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles with the Wexford Festival, and sang Pong in Turandot under the baton of Lorin Maazel in the grand opening of the Zaha Hadid-designed opera house in Guangzhou, China.
Other operatic career highlights include Don Basilio/Don Curzio in Le Nozze di Figaro in his Opera Philadelphia debut which was also filmed in HD and broadcast in Independence Square, Goro in Madama Butterfly with Arizona Opera, Atlanta Opera, Kentucky Opera, Syracuse Opera, Opera Omaha, Madison Opera, Orlando Opera, Berkshire Opera, Opera Birmingham, and Annapolis Opera; King Ouf in L’etoile at New York City Opera, Tavannes in Les Huguenots and Basile in Le Roi Malgré Lui at Bard Summerscape (both commercially recorded and available on iTunes), Jacquino in Fidelio with Opera Boston, Triquet in Eugene Onegin with North Carolina Opera, Borsa in Rigoletto with Florida Grand Opera and Opera New Jersey, Spoletta in Tosca with Florida Grand Opera, Don Basilio in Le Nozze di Figaro with Arizona Opera (directed by Sir Thomas Allen) Atlanta Opera, Eugene Opera, Berkshire Opera, Dayton Opera and the Orlando Philharmonic; the Fourth Jew in Salome with the Boston and Chicago Symphony Orchestras and Palm Beach Opera, The Magician in The Consul with Arizona Opera, Florida Grand Opera and Opera New Jersey; Arturo in Lucia di Lamermoor and Monostatos in The Magic Flute with Arizona Opera, Peter Quint in The Turn Of The Screw with Sideshow Opera in Charlottesville, VA, Rooster in the musical Annie with Ashlawn Opera, Tybalt in Roméo et Juliette and Beadle Bamford in Sweeney Todd with Wolf Trap Opera where he also created the role of Cornaccio in the world premiere of Musto’s Volpone. As a student, he was Bardolfo in Falstaff and Torquemada in L’heure Espagnole under the baton of Seiji Ozawa at Tanglewood, Paolino in Il Matrimonio Segreto with Berkshire Opera, Eumete in Il Ritorno di Ulisse in Patria with the Greenwich Music Festival, Brighella in Ariadne auf Naxos and Dr. Cajus in Falstaff, both under the baton of Julius Rudel at the Aspen Music Festival and numerous roles while a student at Juilliard in Werther, The Love for Three Oranges, Le Nozze di Figaro, The Fairy Queen, The Magic Flute, Der Kuhhandel and Street Scene.
On the concert stage, Ferrante has appeared with the Boston Symphony Orchestra , the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Jacksonville Symphony, the Boise Philharmonic, The Tucson Symphony, the Traverse Symphony Orchestra at Interlochen, The Key Chorale of Sarasota and the Juilliard Orchestra in masterpieces including Handel’s Messiah, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy and Mass in C, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, Stravinsky’s Pulcinella and Britten’s Les Illuminations.
Ferrante has quickly become one of the leading voice teachers of professional singers. His students sing around the world with opera companies including The Met, Covent Garden, English National Opera, Santa Fe, San Francisco, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Glimmerglass, and Wolf Trap. They have been winners and have been featured in the Metropolitan National Council Auditions, the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World, Operalia, the George London Foundation Awards and have been Presidential Scholars in the Arts. He currently serves as a vocal consultant/ faculty member to the young artists programs at Wolf Trap Opera, Minnesota Opera, Portland Opera, Pensacola Opera, Banff, Brevard and Nashville Opera and has served in that capacity for Arizona Opera, Florida Grand Opera and Virginia Opera. He serves as a judge for the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, the Schmidt Awards and the NOA Opera Awards. He was on the faculty of the UBC Summer Vocal Workshop in Vancouver, BC and has given regular masterclasses at opera companies and schools around the United States. He is a national panelist and master teacher for YoungArts, the core program of the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, which recognizes and supports America’s most talented high school artists in the visual, literary, and performing arts and includes nominating future Presidential Scholars in the Arts.
The Baltimore native holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School where he held the Alice Tully Voice Scholarship and studied voice with the legendary vocal pedagogue Beverley Peck Johnson. His professional training includes two summers at Wolf Trap where he was a two-time recipient of a Shouse Grant, three summers at the Aspen Music Festival, and two summers at Tanglewood. His additional studies were with Rita Shane, Phyllis Curtin, Cynthia Hoffmann and Richard Leech. He has written articles for the Juilliard Journal and has been a panelist on the Metropolitan Opera Quiz.
He is a member in good standing of NATS, Opera America and AGMA.