Violinist Michael Ferril received his Bachelor of Music degree from the Juilliard School of Music, where he studied violin with Sally Thomas and chamber music with Paul Doktor. During 1977-1981, he attended the Meadowmount School of Music where his teachers included Sally Thomas, violin, and Josef Gingold, chamber music. At California State University, Northridge, Mr. Ferril studied violin with Endre Granat and Robert Lipsett and chamber music with Myron Sandler.
His professional experience includes instruction and performance at the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival since 1987. He is an honorary Board Member of that Festival. He has also taught at the R.D. Colburn School of Performing Arts. He has performed with numerous orchestras, and has recorded in all of the major motion picture studios in Los Angeles, playing in more than 500 motion picture scores. He was a member of Ysaye Quartet. In addition to soloing with orchestras in Los Angeles and New York, he has performed with the American, Bolshoi, Harlem and Kirov Ballet companies, the Music Center Civic Light Opera and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.
For more than 20 years, Mr. Ferril has maintained a private studio and has also been a collector of famous violins and bows. He has loaned instruments to artists such as Endre Granat. Leila Josefowicz, Tamaki Kawakubo, Sheryl Staples, Robert Chen, and artist teacher Robert Lipsett. Currently, Mr. Ferril owns an Antonio Stradivarius violin named "The ex Armand Von Vecsey" of 1709; the celebrated Alessandro Gagliano of 1710 named "The Rotondo" from the Henry Hottinger collection; and a Dominique Peccattee violin bow belonging to the famous concert violinist, Toscha Siedel.