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 (September 7, 1921, New York City – September 19, 2009, Longboat Key, Florida ), and Louis Teicher (August 24, 1924, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania – August 3, 2008, Highlands, North Carolina) 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" (Pop #10), "Theme from Exodus" (Pop #2), "Tonight" (Pop #8), and "Midnight Cowboy" (Pop #10). 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 (now University of Central Oklahoma) 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.

1950s

 * Mississippi Boogie/African Echoes (1952) Joe Davis Records
 * Piano Playhouse (1952) MGM E209
 * Hi-Fireworks (1953) Columbia CL-573
 * Can-Can & Me & Juliet (1954) Columbia CL-6264
 * Continental Holiday (1954) Columbia CL-6291
 * Xmas Hi-Fivories (1954) Westminster WL-3044
 * Rhapsody (1955) Urania URA-78011
 * Rachmaninoff Two-Piano Suites (1955) Westminster XWN-18059
 * Original Variations for Two Pianos (1955) Westminster XWN-18169
 * Ravel/Debussy (1955) Westminster XWN-18219
 * Encores! (1955) Westminster XWN-18786
 * Postcards from Paris (1955) Westminster WP-6001
 * Adventure in Carols (1955) Westminster WP-6021
 * Soundblast (1956) Westminster WP-6041 (Re-released as Soundproof WPS-107 using the 1958 Soundproof cover )
 * Heavenly Sounds in Hi-Fi (1957) ABC ABCS-221 (Re-released in 1966 under the title Heavenly Sounds of Ferrante & Teicher, ABCS-555)
 * Soundproof (1958) Westminster WP-6014
 * Ferrante & Teicher with Percussion (1958) ABCS-248 (Re-released in 1966 under the title Temptation, ABCS-561)
 * Blast Off (1959) ABCS-285 (Overdubbed with strings and re-released in 1966 under the title We've Got Rhythm, ABCS-556)
 * Play Light Classics (1959) ABCS-313
 * Themes from Broadway Shows (1959) ABCS-336

1960s

 * Dream Concerto (1960) UAS-6103
 * Dynamic Twin Pianos (1960) WWS-8504
 * The World's Greatest Themes (1960) UAS-6121
 * Latin Pianos (1960) UAS-6135
 * Golden Piano Hits (1961) WWS-8505
 * Broadway to Hollywood (1961) Columbia CS 8407
 * Goodbye Again OST (1961) UAS-5091
 * Love Themes (1961) WWS-8514
 * West Side Story (1961) UAS-6166
 * Tonight! (1961) UAS-6171
 * Golden Themes from Motion Pictures (1962) UAS-6210
 * Pianos in Paradise (1962) UAS-6230
 * Snowbound (1962) UAS-6233
 * The Keys to Her Apartment (1962) UAS-6247
 * Love Themes from Cleopatra (1963) UAS-6290
 * Holiday for Pianos (1963) UAS-6298
 * Concert for Lovers (1963) UAS-6315
 * Exotic Love Themes (1963) UAS-6340
 * Fifty Fabulous Favorites (1964)UAS-6343
 * My Fair Lady (1964) UAS-6361
 * The Enchanted World of Ferrante & Teicher (1964) UAS-6375
 * The People's Choice (1964) UAS-6385
 * Springtime (1964) UAS-6406
 * By Popular Demand (1965) UAS-6416
 * Only the Best (1965) UAS-6434
 * A Rage to Live OST (1965) UAS-5130
 * The Ferrante & Teicher Concert—Part 1 (1965) UAS-6444
 * The Ferrante & Teicher Concert—Part 2 (1965) UAS-6475
 * For Lovers of All Ages (1966) UAS-6483
 * You Asked for It!(1966) UAS-6526
 * We Wish You a Merry Christmas (1966) UAS-6536
 * The Twin Piano Magic Volume 2 (1966) ABC-Paramount 559
 * The Piano Artistry (1967) S 21004 - Unart (Canada)
 * Our Golden Favorites (1967) UAS-6556
 * A Man & a Woman (1967) UAS-6572
 * In the Heat of the Night (1967) UAS-6624
 * Live for Life (1967) UAS-6632
 * The Painted Desert (1968) UAS-6636
 * A Bouquet of Hits (1968) UAS-6659
 * Love in the Generation Gap (1968) UAS-6671
 * Listen to the Movies with Ferrante & Teicher (1969) UAS-6701
 * Midnight Cowboy (1969) UAS-6725 (#49CAN )

1970s

 * Getting Together (1970) UAS-5501 (#75CAN )
 * Love Is a Soft Touch (1970) UAS-6771
 * The Best of Ferrante & Teicher (1970) UAS-73
 * The Music Lovers (1971) UAS-6792
 * It's Too Late (1971) UAS-5531
 * Fiddler on the Roof (1972) UAS-5552
 * Play the Hit Themes (1972) UAS-5588
 * Salute Nashville (1972) UAS-5645
 * Hear and Now (1973) UA-LA018F
 * The Roaring Twenties (1973) UA-LA072F
 * Killing Me Softly (1974) UA-LA118F
 * Dial "M" for Music (1974) UA-LA195F
 * The Very Best of Ferrante & Teicher (1974) UA-LA379E
 * Greatest Love Themes of the 20th Century (1975) UA-LA101-G2
 * In a Soulful Mood (1975) UA-LA227G
 * Beautiful, Beautiful (1975) UA-LA316G
 * Body & Soul (1975) UA-LA360G
 * The Carpenters Songbook (1976) UA-LA490G
 * Fill the World with Love (1976) UA-LA547G
 * Spirit of 76" (1976) UA-LA573G
 * Piano Portraits (1977) UA-LA585G
 * Feelings (1977) UA-LA662G
 * Rocky & Other Knockouts (1977) UA-LA782G
 * Star Wars (1978) UA-LA855G
 * You Light Up My Life (1978) UA-LA908G
 * Supermen (1979) UA-LA941G
 * Classical Disco (1979) UA-LA980G

1980s

 * 30th Anniversary—On Stage (1984) Avant-Garde (Bainbridge) AVG-1001
 * A Few of Our Favorites—On Stage (1985) Avant-Garde (Bainbridge) AVG-1002
 * American Fantasy—On Stage (1986) Avant-Garde (Bainbridge) AVG-1003
 * Dos Amigos (1988) Avant-Garde (Bainbridge) AVG-1004

1990s

 * 40th Anniversary—On Stage (1992) Avant-Garde (Intersound) AVG-1005
 * All-Time Great Motion Picture Themes (1993) 0777-7-98823-2
 * The Ernie Kovacs Record Collection (1997) Varèse Sarabande – VSD-5789
 * The Ferrante & Teicher Collection (1998) Avant-Garde (Varèse Sarabande Vintage) AVG-1006

2000s

 * The Sound of Music (2000) Avant-Garde/Varèse Sarabande Records AVG-1007
 * Denizens of the Deep (2001) Avant-Garde /Varèse Sarabande Records 302 066 261 2
 * Can-Can and Me & Juliet/Continental Holiday (2001) Sony/Collectables Records CDL-CD-6692
 * Christmas Is So Special (2000) 724352905720
 * Great 1970's Motion Picture Themes (2001) 72435-30518-2
 * America Forever (2002) Avant-Garde/Varèse Sarabande Records 302 066 312 2

Track appearances

 * Filme, Die Man Nicht Vergisst, United Artists Records
 * Great Motion Picture Themes, United Artists Records, 1960
 * Music to Read James Bond By, United Artists Records, 1965
 * Music to Read James Bond By Vol. 2, United Artists Records, 1965
 * Dusty Fingers Volume One, "Lady Love", Strictly Breaks Records, 1997
 * Ultra-Lounge—Christmas Cocktails Part Two, Capitol Records, 1997
 * Ultra-Lounge Vol. 16—Mondo Hollywood, Capitol Records, 1997
 * The Best of Blue Juice, Blue Note, 2001
 * Hard to Find Orchestral Instrumentals II, Eric Records, 2003