Rose City International Conductor’s Workshop, application round 2, May 7 deadline
The musicians of the Rose City Chamber Orchestra are happy to announce a second selection round for the 2008 Rose City International Conductor’s Workshop, July 21-27 in Portland, Oregon. Interested conductors should submit their applications, including postmarking any materials that are being mailed, by May 7, 2008. Workshop faculty include David Hoose from Boston University, Christopher Zimmerman from the Hartt School and RCICW director, Kenneth Woods.
Four slots remain in each of the two programs. The Emerging Artist program offers advanced training at the highest level for conductors who have completed the bulk of their studies and are beginning to establish themselves in the professional arena. The Discovery Program is an intensive immersion in conducting and score study for young conductors beginning their studies, advanced instrumentalists with some previous conducting training, experienced amateurs and music educators.
The Emerging Artist program offers students the chance to work with full orchestra and professional soloists in repertoire including Beethoven’s String Quartet in F minor, op 95 as arranged by Mahler, Dvorak’s Wind Serenade, the 13 Instrument version of Copland’s Appalachian Spring, scenes from Puccini’s Madame Butterfly and the Brahms D minor Piano Concerto. All sessions are video-recorded to DVD in CD-quality audio. All Emerging Artist students also participate in a final concert.
Discovery Program repertoire includes Haydn’s Symphony no. 86, Stravinsky’s Octet for Winds and Beethoven’s Symphony no. 2 in D major, and all DP teaching sessions are also professionally videoed. Students in both programs will also participate jointly in seminars and discussion sections throughout the week.
This season’s soloists include pianist Rick Rowley, tenor Brennen Guillory and soprano Esther Mae Moses.
Apply online at www.rosecityworkshop.org
Fourth Annual Rose City International Conductor’s Workshop
2008 Rose City International Conductor’s Workshop (www.rosecityworkshop.org).
As we prepare for our fourth summer of great music and good company in one of the most beautiful and dynamic cities in America, we’re very excited about this season’s repertoire and our guest artists.
David Hoose, Chris Zimmerman and I have worked hard to create a supportive, collegial atmosphere that stresses pragmatic and constructive approaches to teaching conducting with a strong emphasis on developing study skills. The musicians of the orchestra are deeply committed to the workshop and are intensely supportive of the students. We want our students to leave the workshop more competent and more confident. We were also one of the first workshops to put a huge emphasis on opera and concerto accompanying, and our students get the unique chance to work with professional soloists in the teaching sessions and concert.
We’ve always tried to be the greenest and most innovative workshop around- to the best of my knowledge we were the first conducting workshop to abandon tree killing bulk mailing of paper brochures and do all of our marketing via the internet, and we have also been the first workshop to accept applications, cvs and recommendations on line. This year we go one step further- conductors who have video of themselves on their webpages, YouTube or other video hosting services may use that as their audition video- you need never race to the post office to express mail another VHS taper or DVD again.
Please let our staff know if you have any questions at admin@rosecityworkshop.org
Meanwhile, some genral information on this year’s symposium follows-
Ischia Chamber Music Festival

Chamber music played with passion, coached professionally, in a truly stunning Mediterranean setting
May 10-17, 2008. The Location
The fabled southern Italian isle of Ischia - dreaming with Capri in the timeless blue waters of the Bay of Naples, is home to the Covo dei Borboni, an elegant, white-washed villa surrounded by beautifully landscaped gardens overlooking the sea, which will again be the exclusive venue for our chamber music workshop, that will be held from Saturday May 10th to Saturday May 17th.
The Program
Ischiafestival offers a unique week: playing, studying and enjoying quality, professionally coached Chamber Music. This year’s workshop is privileged to have engaged Byron Wallis, violin, David Yang, viola, Kenneth Woods, cello and conductor, Giuseppe Carannante, clarinet and conductor,and artistic director Aldo de Vero , piano, as resident coaches. Coaching sessions will be focused on specific repertoires (String Quartet, Wind Quintet, Piano Four-hand) in the morning, and on Strings & Winds with Piano repertoire in the afternoon. Coaching sessions will begin Saturday the 10th at 4 p.m. Evenings after 6 p.m. will be free for sightseeing, free-playing, enjoying the wonderful food, sights and ambience of this charming island as well as being warmly welcome to enjoy listening to the three scheduled concerts during the week. The workshop will end with performances by participant musicians on the evening of Friday, May 16.

Accomodation and Meals
Coaching sessions will take place at the Covo dei Borboni, which features practice rooms, a music library, accommodation in apartments with kitchenettes, and two outdoor pools - one filled with the famed spa thermal waters so special to the Island of Ischia. Meals, services and further accommodation in single, double and triple rooms will be provided by the nearby four-star sister Hotel Grazia Terme at special Workshop rates.In addition to the performances of the student groups, there will be two faculty concerts including performances of the Brahms Clarinet Quintet, Mozart Piano Quartet, Arnold Piano Trio and several other works. The workshop’s website is here.
I hope that many of you who have an interest in chamber music will want to apply. Please feel free to email info@kennethwoods.net with any questions. Messages sent there will either go to me or directly to the festival. It is a magnificent location, great repertoire and a very collegial and expert faculty- I’m really looking forward to the week and the chance to do some good chamber music work again
Current Rose City Workshop Application Information
Here’s the latest from the RCICW office for interested conductors.
Of his professional debut, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, The Daily Telegraph of London wrote, “Contact with the orchestra seemed immediate, the result a reading in which the playing responded keenly to gestures which themselves were expressive both of the symphony’s fiery vigour and of its finer nuances. Christopher Zimmerman revealed a sharp interpretative profile and control of orchestral timbre….a most auspicious London debut.”
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 a regular guest conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Mr. Woods has also been a member of the conducting staff at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Cincinnati Pops.
Broadcasting Corporation.
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. 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.”
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. He is a highly regarded teacher of conducting who has been a clinician for masterclasses offered by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and in 2005 was asked by the musicians of the Rose City Chamber Orchestra to found a new training institute for emerging professional conductors, the Rose City International Conductor’s Workshop.
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. 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.
Study conducting with Ken
I’m happy to let you know that we have finalized the arrangements for the 2007 Rose City International Conductor’s Workshop, to be held from the 24th-27th of July, 2007, at Warner Pacific College in Portland Oregon. Faculty this year will again be Christopher Zimmerman, David Hoose and myself.
This is the third year of the workshop, which gives a chance for emerging conductors to work in an intense and supportive environment with the musicians of the Rose City Chamber Orchestra, the Pacific Northwest’s player-run orchestra.
We have a few exciting additions to the program this year, including a slightly expanded schedule. We have renamed the main program the “Emerging Artists” program. The goal of the Emergina Artists Program is to offer serious, advanced students of conducting and professionals in the early stages of their careers a chance to develop their skills to the highest possible level. This year for the E.A program is-
Beethoven- Symphony No. 7
Stravinsky- L’Histoire du Soldat Suite
Shostakovich- Piano Concerto No. 1, with trumpet and strings
Verdi- Excerpts from Il Trovatore (Part II)
Varese- Octandre for Winds
Brennen Guillory and Alexis Hamilton, who sang Don Jose and Carmen for us last year, will be returning to sing Manrico and Azucena in Trovatore, and concert pianist Rick Rowley will be playing the Shostakovich.
We have also created a program for conductors who don’t fancy taking on so much repertoire, or who are maybe just beginning their studies. This is a great opportunity for very young conductors who have just caught the conducting bug, music educators who want a refresher course but don’t have time to learn a great deal of repertoire or instrumentalists and singers who are interested in conducting but aren’t yet studying or working full-time as conductors. This is the Discovery program, and the repertoire is-
Beethoven- Symphony no. 1 (piano reduction played by Rick Rowley)
Stravinsky- Soldier’s March from L’Histoire du Soldat (full ensemble)
Haydn- Symphony no. 92 “Oxford” (full orchestration)
We will also be having some technique and score study classes, a discussion of string techniques, bowings and styles and a session on opera coaching and conducting with our soloists and Rick.
We also welcome auditors.
Lots more information is available on our website, www.rosecityworkshop.org. If you apply by February 22nd, you can save $30 bucks, otherwise, the deadline is March 22nd. You can make inquiries at the workshop office via email- admin@rosecityworkshop.org .
I hope we’ll hear from a lot of you. Meanwhile, all very best wishes
Ken
Kenneth Woods, director
Rose City International Conductor’s Workshop