The Ferris Fellows

John Raymond FerrisJohn Raymond Ferris, University Organist and Choirmaster (1958-1990), in rehearsal with the Harvard University Choir. Photo courtesy of Nancy Wilson. 

In Honor of John Raymond Ferris

By Edward Elwyn Jones
Gund University Organist and Choirmaster

Harvard’s oldest living tradition, its daily service of Morning Prayers signaling the beginning of each academic day, features music by the Choral Fellows of Harvard University (whose singing the New York Times called “otherworldly and unforgettable”). These sixteen singers provide the music five mornings a week as well as leading the Harvard University Choir in its schedule of services, concerts, and recordings. While a body of singers has always sung the University’s daily services (the Morning Choir), the idea of a more formalized group was instituted by Dr. Murray Forbes Somerville, Gund University Organist and Choirmaster 1990–2003.

Murray SommervilleDr. Somerville writes, “During my sabbatical term, in the spring of 1998, spent studying three noted US choirs and three choirs in the other Cambridge, I noticed that special attention was placed on vocal training, several of the choirs requiring private study with approved teachers. Upon my return, I worked on a plan to move in this direction, building on the institution of Morning Choir as the backbone of the Harvard University Choir. We decided on a scheme of choral fellowships, appointed in the spring for the following year, with option to renew on both sides, with an enhanced stipend and mandatory voice lessons paid for by the church. A generous gift from HBS alumnus Buzz McCoy enabled funding for the first three years, and the inaugural class of Choral Fellows took office in the fall or 2001.”

In the fall of 2017, Dr. Somerville proposed that we honor our distinguished predecessor, John Raymond Ferris — whose work with the Harvard University Choir is legendaryJohn Raymond Ferris— by naming the group in his honor (the Ferris Fellows). Dr. Somerville announced our intention to do so at the Uchoir reunion that fall, and he kicked off the campaign with a very generous lead donation. We are now very close to the target of $200,000 which, alongside funds already amassed, will reach the threshold to enable the group’s naming in John’s honor.

As Chairman of the Harvard University Choir Alumni Committee, and long-time Choir Secretary, Jim Farmer writes, “It is fitting to remember John Ferris by naming this fund in his honor to supplement the Ferris plaque outside Appleton Chapel. During his lengthy tenure as University Organist and Choirmaster (1958–1990), John built an extraordinary community of singers (over 750 Uchoir alums), all of whom counted him as mentor, teacher, confidant, and friend.”

It is our hope to complete this campaign by the fall of 2021 when, at the start of October, another Uchoir reunion will be held. In a building whose very stones are a living memorial to Harvard’s dead, and a guardian of its memories and hopes, I can think of no more fitting tribute to our distinguished predecessor, whose extraordinary legacy continues to resonate around our hallowed walls.

For more information about the Choral Fellows and the Harvard University Choir read Choir & Organ's An Uncommon Leap of Faith, published in 2002.

 

 

With gratitude to all who donated to the campaign to name the Choral Fellows in memory of John Raymond Ferris (1926-2008),

University Organist and Choirmaster (1958-1990)
 

Deborah J. Abel (in Honor of Nancy B. Granert)

Susanna Adams

William R. Adams Jr.

Lisa Adedoyin Folashade Adeeko

Ramsey B. Alberson (in Memory of John R. Ferris)

John M. Allen III

Paul L. Althouse Jr.

Alexandra Amati

James I. Armstrong

Alice W. Ballard

Marjory Zoet Bankson

Richard Barnum

Susan Dreyfuss Bartholomew

Dianne Marie Bazell

Charles R. Beaudrot, Jr.

Mary M. Beekman

Ann P. Bernstein

Paul S. Bernstein

Thomas N. Bisson (in Honor of Nancy B. Granert)

Albert L. Blackwell

David Eric Blackwell

Paul A. Blanchard

Robin Bledsoe

Joanne Booth

Colin Crawford Brash

LeeAnn Brash

John R. Brown

Susan King Brown

Matthew J. Butterick

Ariel Pablo Camperi

Juliet M. Carey

Rosemarie Cassels-Brown

Luci V. Cedrone

Michael J. Cedrone (in Honor of Nancy B. Granert)

Charles E. Cerf

Rowland W. Chang

David Bruce Chase

Elliot Chase

Paula Leggett Chase

David W. Christianson

David W. Clark

Timothy B. Cogan

Community Foundation of Greater Memphis

Kathryn Compton (in Honor of Nancy B. Granert)

David L. Conant

Rebecca E. Conant

Charles E. Cook (in Honor of Nancy B. Granert)

Thomas F. Cooke II

Ronald E. Coons

Deborah Vogel Cornwell

Barbara Nobles Crawford

Lisa Goode Crawford

Rudd Adams Crawford

Martina Margarita Crocker

Daniel B. Cunningham (in Memory of Lee Edward Wiederhold)

Margaret G. Cunningham (in Memory of Lee Edward Wiederhold)

David Damrosch

Lori Fisler Damrosch

Maria M. Davidis

A. David Davis

Katharine Beal Davis

Victoria P. de Menil

Bree Dietly

Sharon K. Dobbins-Alberson (in Memory of John R. Ferris)

Cynthia E. Dunbar

Benjamin S. Dunham

Carol R. Dunn

Harriett M. Eckstein (in Honor of Nancy B. Granert)

Edgerly Foundation

William S. Edgerly

The Esmond Nissim Foundation, Inc.

Annmarie Errichetti

Kathy P. Evans

James B. Farmer

Anne Faulkner

Jennifer Morgan Fauth

Maryanne Gail Fenerjian

Adam M. Finkel

Tamzen Flanders

Lora E. Fleming

Zachary Paul Fletcher

David Salomon Flores

David D. Foster (in Memory of Trevor L. Jones)

David Otis Fuller, Jr.

Jerome Fung

Alison Frazier Games

Matthew S. Gamser

Christine N. Gandel

Kathryn E. Geissinger

Henry Gibbons IV

Katherine H. Gibson

Gilbert W. Gimm

Deborah A. Gitin

Reed A. Gochberg

Cynthia Inez Gonzales

Byron Joseph Good

Nicolas Grabar

Nancy B. Granert

Greater Washington Community Foundation

David H. Griesinger

Joan Griewank Colligan

Carolyn Montgomery Guard

Matthew R. Guard

Nicolas Gurtner

Mary Causey Hamilton

Suzanne L. Hamner

W. Easley Hamner

Elizabeth Anne Marie Hansen

Elizabeth Malkin Haviland

Jordan Timothy Haviland

Charles C. Hefling, Jr.

Peter L. Heiman

Mark W. Hessler

Betsy F. Hestnes (in Honor of Harold Hestnes)

Kenneth T. Hoffman

Pamela Joan Hogan

Robert S. Hurlbut Jr. (in Honor of Nancy B. Granert)

Judy Diane Hustead

David P. Illingworth

Ann T. Ingram

David P. Ingram

Isaiah A. Jackson III

Nicholas R. Jones

Keith Benjamin Josephson

Emily Perkins Gantt Kahn

Yoni Kahn

Elizabeth M Keith

Kent M. Keith

William E. Keller

George A. Kent (in Honor of Nancy B. Granert)

Mary Louise Hoffman Kent (in Honor of Nancy B. Granert)

Mark Alvin Keroack

Jeffrey Kimball

Mary Elizabeth Kirk

David Armin Klaus

Pauline Whittinghill Klyce Pennoyer

Ellen Cooper Klyce

Walter Brigham Klyce

Roy F. Knight

Colleen C. Krebs

Eric W. Kristensen

Leo Lanzillo

Meredith A. Larson

Nicholas Lasoff (in Honor of Nancy B. Granert)

Vance Lauderdale III

Royal W. Leith III

Avery Elizabeth Lindeman

Felicia Lipson

Warren M. Little

Seth Lloyd

William E. Lobkowicz

Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Charitable Trust

Margaret Ruth Loss

Gwyneth E. Loud (in Honor of Nancy B. Granert)

Kevin J. Madigan

Carol Magenau (in Memory of John R. Ferris)

Sarah Manguso

Jessica Leigh Mark Welch

Linda Cecelia Martucci

Max Taro Masuda-Farkas

Sarah Matthews

Eugene C. McAfee (in Honor of Nancy B. Granert)

Kristin Krebill McCabe (in Honor of Nancy B. Granert)

Barbara M. McCoy

Bowen H. McCoy

Lenora E. McCroskey

David S. McIntosh

Lisa Afua Serwah Mensah

Frederick David Metzger

Timothy W. Meyer

Jasmine Ying Miller

Martha L. Moore-Keish (in Honor of Nancy B. Granert)

Carla L. Mortensen

Seth W. Moulton

Carl F. Muller

Jane C. Munro

Drew Nagele

Robin Locke Nagele

Laura Lee Nash

David R. Nelson

Patricia Nelson

John Eric Noran

Nellie Hauke Ohr (in Honor of Nancy B. Granert)

Felton Owens

Susan R. Owens

Lambrini Papangelis

Barbara Parton

Barbara A. B. Patterson

Stephanie A. Paulsell

Robert M. Pennoyer II

Ronald C. Perera (in Honor of Nancy B. Granert)

Sandra L. Perkins

Jeanette L. Pfaff

Kurt Andrew Pocsi

Adriana Clare Pohl

Laura S. Pruitt

John Allen Quintus

Sharon L. Regan (in Honor of Nancy B. Granert)

John Regier

Kathryn L. Reichard

Richard D. Roark

Daniel Vehe Robinson

Diana Rowan Rockefeller

Wendy Rolfe-Dunham

Alison Taylor Rosenblum

Cynthia W. Rossano (in Honor of Nancy B. Granert)

Kenneth R. Rossano (in Honor of Nancy B. Granert)

Katherine Kyung-Mi Schick

Carl B. Schmidt

Elizabeth A. Schnell

Jacob M. Shapiro

William Shebar

Gail B. Shulman

Rosemarie D. Siegel

David W. Siktberg

Judith R. Sizer

Arnold Lee Snyder, Jr.

Patricia Ward Snyder

Hazel B. Somerville (in Honor of Nancy B. Granert)

Murray F. Somerville (in Honor of Nancy B. Granert)

J. Andrew Spindler

Marga Susan Sproul

David M. Stetson (in Honor of Nancy B. Granert)

Anthony Y. Strike

Kathryn W. Strike

Shona W. Sudarshan

Laura Swain

Victoria Harding Swerdlow

Tricia I. Swift

Ildiko Szabo

Haofeng Edward Tang

Valerie R. Taylor

Christopher Thorpe

Liz Tokar

M. Kathryn Tolbert

Christine A. Triska (in Honor of Nancy B. Granert)

Alexis Z. Tumolo

Paul N. Tweeten

Steven B. Ujifusa

Rosalind U. van Stolk

Marjorie K. Vanderhill

Matthew Vanderhill

Lee D. Vincent

Alexandra Vinograd

Evon Z. Vogt III

Mary Anschuetz Vogt

Katherine L. S. Von Kohorn

Richard K. Wagner

M. C. Wall

Nellesa Renee Walthour (in Honor of Nancy B. Granert)

Jacqueline Wang

William D. Warner

Nathaniel F. Watson (in Memory of John R. Ferris)

Randall E. Wedin

Randolph Nelson Wentworth

Sue Fisher Wentworth

Mary T. White

Barbara Breasted Whitesides

George M. Whitesides

Constance Williams

Preston N. Williams

M. Jane Williamson

Michael T. Wilson

Christoph J. Wolff

Patricia E. Woo

Jason G. Wood

Margaret T. Wright

Cynthia A. Young

David Yuan (in Honor of Nancy B. Granert)

Anka Zaremba

Robert W. Zarrett