Kenneth Woods

Kenneth Allen Woods (born 1968) is an American conductor, composer and cellist, resident in the UK.

Early career Woods studied conducting at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. His subsequent conducting mentors have included Leonard Slatkin, David Zinman, Jorma Panula and Gerhard Samuel. In 2000, Zinman selected Woods to be a fellow in the inaugural class of the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen. In 2001, Slatkin chose Woods as one of four participants in the Kennedy Center National Conducting Institute. the complete symphonies of Robert Schumann, Gustav Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellan and Das Lied von der Erde (orchestrated by Schoenberg), and new works for traditional Japanese instruments and orchestra, "Springs Sounds, Spring Seas".

English Symphony Orchestra In 2012, the English Symphony Orchestra (ESO) named Woods as artistic director of its Malvern concert series, during an interregnum period for the orchestra. In 2013, the ESO elevated Woods to the post of principal conductor, and in 2015, to artistic director. During his ESO tenure, Woods has premiered, commissioned and made recordings of new works by Robert Fokkens, David Matthews, Emily Doolittle, Tom Kraines, Kile Smith, Geoffrey Gordon, Deborah Pritchard, Stephen Gerber, Nimrod Borenstein, Toby Young, Paul Patterson, Hans Gál, Donald Fraser, James Francis Brown and Jesse Jones. Woods led the ESO in its first full-length opera performance, of Jane Eyre by John Joubert, given its world premiere in October 2016.

In 2013, Woods re-established the position of ESO Composer-in-Association, with John McCabe in the post. Following McCabe's death in 2015, Philip Sawyers took up the position. Sawyers compositions for the ESO have included Songs of Loss and Regret, Fanfare, Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Trumpet Concerto, Elegiac Rhapsody for Trumpet and Strings in Memory of John McCabe and his Third Symphony. Sawyers was succeeded in 2018 by David Matthews, whose tenure saw recordings of his Ninth Symphony, Variations for Strings and Double Concerto for Violin and Viola. In 2020, Adrian Williams took up the position.

Sawyers' Third Symphony also became the first work in the ESO's 21st Century Project, an effort to commissions nine new symphonies by leading composers. Subsequent works in the series have included David Matthews' Ninth Symphony and the Fifth Symphony of Matthew Taylor.

Colorado MahlerFest In 2015, Woods became the new artistic director of the Colorado MahlerFest, the second artistic director in the festival's history. At the Colorado MahlerFest, Woods established a new training institute for young conductors (the Mahler Conducting Fellowship), a chair for an annual visiting composer, and an expansion of the festival's chamber music and contemporary music offerings. Visiting composers have included David Matthews, Jesse Jones and Kurt Schwertsik. In 2017, Woods led the MahlerFest Orchestra in their first performance of the Deryck Cooke performing version of Mahler's Tenth Symphony in a new edition using revisions and corrections from Colin Matthews, David Matthews and Peter Wadl.

Arranger and composer Woods' orchestrations and arrangements of music by other composers includes an orchestration of Brahms' Piano Quartet No. 2, recorded with the ESO for Nimbus. In 2012, the English Chamber Orchestra recorded his orchestration of Viktor Ullmann's Third String Quartet. Other arrangements and orchestrations include works by Mahler, Schubert, Humperdinck and Tchaikovsky. Woods' own music has been recorded on Avie Records.

Entartete Musik Woods was the cellist in the second American performance of Viktor Ullmann's Third String Quartet, following study with Henry Meyer, second violinist of the LaSalle String Quartet and a concentration camp survivor. Inspired by Meyer's teaching and experiences, Woods has advocated the music of composers known as Entartete Musik (Degenerate Music), after its suppression during the Third Reich. He has made recordings of music by Hans Krása, Ernst Krenek, Arnold Schoenberg, Mieczyslaw Weinberg and Hans Gál. Woods is Honorary Patron of the Hans Gál Society.

Chamber music work As a cellist, Woods has been a recipient of the Aspen Fellowship, the Dale Gilbert Award, the Strelow Quartet Fellowship, and the National Endowment for the Arts Rural Residency Grant. He was the founding cellist of the Taliesin Trio and of the Masala Quartet. In 2006, he became a founding artist of the Clocktower Chamber Music Festival in Durango, Colorado. In 2008, he became artist-in-residence at the Ischia Chamber Music Festival. That year he also become the founding cellist of the string trio, Ensemble Epomeo.

Teaching and other work Woods has established the Rose City International Conductor's Workshop at the invitation of the Rose City Chamber Orchestra. At the Colorado MahlerFest, Woods established the Mahler Conducting Fellowship. Woods has taught conducting in master classes organized by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and The Bridgewater Hall, and is a consultant and has been an adjudicator at institutions such as the Royal College of Music.

Woods is the author of a blog, "A View from the Podium". He has written essays, features and programme notes for Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine, Classical Music Magazine, EMI Records, ICA Classics, Warner Classics, Avie Records, Somm Recordings, Toccata Classics, Listen Magazine and others.