WREXHAM SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Kenneth Woods - Conductor

Hailed by the Washington Post as an “up-and-coming conductor” and a “true star” of the podium, Kenneth Woods is Music Director and Conductor of the Oregon East Symphony and Chorale, Principal Guest Conductor of the Rose City Chamber Orchestra and Principal Conductor of the Lancashire Chamber Orchestra. Mr. Woods has also been a member of the conducting staff at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Cincinnati Pops.

Already known in America as one of the most exciting conductors of the new generation, Kenneth Woods is quickly becoming recognized as major talent on the international scene. He has worked with many orchestras of international distinction including the National Symphony Orchestra, the Cincinnati Symphony, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Budapest Festival Orchestra and the State of Mexico Symphony Orchestra. He has also appeared on the stages of some of the world’s leading music festivals, including Aspen, Lucerne, Round Top and Scotia. His work on the concert platform and in the recording studio has led to numerous broadcasts on BBC Radio 3, National Public Radio, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

In the spring of 2001, Kenneth Woods was selected by Leonard Slatkin as one of four participants in the Kennedy Centre National Conducting Institute. At the completion of the Institute, he led the National Symphony Orchestra in a debut concert, drawing great critical acclaim and a return invitation from the NSO. In the spring of 2000, David Zinman selected Kenneth Woods from a pool of over 200 applicants to be a fellow in the inaugural class of the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen. Toronto Symphony Music Director  Peter Oundjian has praised Woods as “a conductor with true vision and purpose. He has a most fluid and clear style and an excellent command on the podium… a most complete musician.”

Kenneth Woods has conducted critically praised productions of operas from Britten to Puccini, and ballet scores as diverse as Giselle, The Nutcracker, Firebird and Konservatoriet. Woods’s activities as an active proponent of contemporary music include collaborations as a conductor or cellist with such figures as John Corigliano, Krystopf Penderecki, Peter Lieberson, Oliver Knussen and many others.

During his tenure as Music Director of the Grande Ronde Symphony from 1999-2002, and the Oregon East Symphony from 2000-, Mr. Woods led these orchestras through a period of rapid growth in artistic achievement, audience and range of activities. At the OES he has been the founding artistic director of a new training orchestra and training institute, overseen a massive expansion of educational and outreach activities, and brought the orchestra substantial new artistic acclaim. He has led the creation and programming of numerous educational concert series, been active in community outreach and an active collaborator with music educators. In 2005 he was invited by the Rose City Chamber Orchestra to start a new international workshop for young conductors.

As a cellist he has been recipient of the Aspen Fellowship (Mr. Woods has received the Aspen Fellowship as both a cellist and conductor), the Dale Gilbert Award (the only musician to win this award in consecutive years), the Strelow Quartet Fellowship, the National Endowment for the Arts Rural Residency Grant and has recorded and toured extensively as soloist and chamber musician. He has played chamber music with members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Centre, the Smithsonian Chamber Players, the Cincinnati, Chicago and Toronto symphonies, and the Minnesota, Gewandhaus and Concertgebouw orchestras. He was founding cellist of the NEA recognized Taliesin Trio, and of the Masala Quartet, who have recorded for Vienna Modern Masters and appeared at festivals and concert series in the US and Europe. As a student, he coached with members of many of the worlds leading quartets, including the Tokyo, Vermeer, La Salle, Pro Arte, Borodin, Emerson and Vegh. In 2006 he became a founding artist of the Clocktower Chamber Music Festival in Durango, Colorado.

Mr. Woods pursued his advanced conducting studies at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and has also studied at leading summer institutes and workshops around the world. He has studied conducting with Leonard Slatkin, David Zinman, Jorma Panula, Murry Sidlin, Robert Spano, Gerhard Samuel, and Larry Rachleff. In his capacity as an assistant conductor, he has collaborated with James Conlon, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Paavo Jarvi, Richard Hickox, Erich Kunzel, Alexander Lazarev, Robert Spano, Jiri Belohlavek, Peter Oundjian and many others.

April 2007

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