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, and Principal Conductor of the Lancashire Chamber Orchestra. He recently completed three years as Music Director of the Grande Ronde Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Woods has also been a member of the conducting staff at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, where he served as Conducting Assistant for the 1998-1999 season.

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, where his most recent performance was filmed for broadcast on Mexican television. He has also appeared of the stage of some of the world’s leading music festivals, including Aspen, Lucerne, Round Top and Scotia.

In the spring of 2001, Kenneth Woods was selected by Leonard Slatkin as one of four participants in the Kennedy Center 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 to be a fellow in the inaugural class of the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen. Toronto Symphony Music Director Designate 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’ activities as a conductor include symphonic concerts, opera, ballet, new music and pops. He conducted the Cincinnati Contemporary Music Ensemble on their 1998 tour to Portugal, including their appearance at the 100 Days Festival, where he was also featured as a cellist. Woods’ 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

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 Center, the Smithsonian Chamber Players, the Cincinnati, Chicago and Toronto symphonies, and the Minnesota, Gewandhaus and Concertgebow orchestras. He was founding cellist of the National Endowment for the Arts 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. He has an extensive solo repertoire and regularly appears as a soloist with orchestras across America in repertoire ranging from Haydn to Chen Yi.