Kenneth Woods (17 November)
Pursuing his own path in an industry which too easily favours conformity and predictability, has made Kenneth Woods (conductor, festival director, cellist, rock guitarist, songwriter, arranger, lecturer and podcaster), something of a rarity. Growing up in Wisconsin, his early musical education began with his parents’ record collection which ranged from Shostakovich to The Dukes of Dixieland, and continued in the Madison Public Schools’ music programme.
He is currently Artistic Director of the English Symphony Orchestra, Worcester’s annual Elgar Festival and the Colorado MahlerFest. He is amongst today’s leading advocates for the music of composers whose lives and music were affected by political violence and oppression in the first half of the 20th century, and he has made important first recordings of music by Schulhoff, Krása, Gál, Krenek, Weinberg and Walter Arlen. He served as Principal Guest conductor of Orchestra of the Swan (with whom he has recorded symphonies by Schumann and Hans Gál; he is an Honorary Patron of the Hans Gál Society), and the Rose City Chamber Orchestra and regularly guest conducts ensembles such as the Royal Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, City of London Sinfonia and English Chamber Orchestra.
Ken’s belief in the importance of healing the schism between classical audiences and contemporary music has led him to premiere, record or commission new works by composers such as Ian Venables, Eleanor Alberga, Thea Musgrave, Paul Patterson, Robert Fokkens, Donald Fraser, Toby Young and James Francis Brown. At the English Symphony Orchestra, his signature project has been the 21st Century Symphony Project, a multi-year effort to bring to life a new generation of symphonies by composers including Philip Sawyers, David Matthews, Matthew Taylor, Steve Elcock, Adrian Williams, Robert Saxton and Emily Doolittle. He is equally prolific in his championship of British composers of earlier decades including Michael Tippett and John McCabe (his recent recording of McCabe’s Second and Third symphonies along with the Cello Concerto played by Raphael Wallfisch awaits release).
As guitarist, his latest album Silent Spike with the The Old Blue Gang, the rock band based in Penarth (where Woods has made his home) was released in July. One of the most idiomatic and resplendent accounts of Elgar’s Second Symphony heard by the present writer was conducted by Kenneth with the English Symphony Orchestra at last year’s Elgar Festival in Worcester Cathedral.
Much to cover this evening as Kenneth talks to Putney Music’s joint programme secretary, Andrew Keener.
