Dominick Ferrara

Position
Professor
Affiliated Departments
Telephone
617-747-3169

For media inquiries, please contact Media Relations

Dr. Dominick Ferrara currently serves as professor of music education, director of the Day Sessions Young Performers Summer Program, and conductor of the Symphonic Winds at Berklee College of Music. His teaching responsibilities at Berklee include classes in undergraduate instrumental music education, conducting and score analysis, and a graduate course in leadership and administration in music education. For his work at the college,  Ferrara was awarded both the Professional Education Division’s Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence in 2008 and for Global Presence and Engagement in 2020.

Prior to arriving at Berklee in 2006, Ferrara taught for 16 years in the New Jersey public schools, where he was awarded a Governor’s Teacher Recognition Award by the State of New Jersey Department of Education in 2000 and was named as a finalist for the Princeton University Prize for Distinguished Secondary School Teaching in 2005. He is a life member of the National Eagle Scout Association and an active member of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary.

He holds a professional certificate in management from the University of Notre Dame, a B.A. in music education, summa cum laude, from Montclair State University, and both an M.A.T. in music and a D.M.A. in music education from Rutgers University.

Career Highlights
  • Director of the Day Sessions Summer Program and conductor of the Berklee Symphonic Winds
  • Performances with the Bangor Symphony Orchestra, the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra, the Portland (ME) Symphony, the United States Coast Guard Band and Chamber Players, and Bernadette Peters, among others
  • 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
  • Recipient of the 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
  • Recipient of the 2020 Berklee College of Music Professional Education Division Dean's Award for Global Presence and Engagement
Education
  • D.M.A., Rutgers University, with special studies in educational administration/supervision and instrumental conducting 
  • M.A.T., Rutgers University
  • B.A., Montclair State University, summa cum laude