| November 20, 2006 An extended feature and review on Kenneth Woods concert with Surrey Mozart Players and pianist Bobby Chen here |
| December 4, 2006 Kenneth Woods conducts gala 15th Anniversary Concert of the Kelvin Ensemble. Scotland's top music critic calls it " a full-bodied, rich performance of a … high standard... Kenneth Woods certainly knows his way around the orchestra, in terms of cueing, balance and structure" Michael Tumelty, The Herald. More here |
| October 29, 2006 Woods' Nottingham Philharmonic Review: "a concert to stir and delight" ..."A New Dimension for the Orchestra" Read the whole review here. |
| December 5, 2006 Another review of KW and Bobby Chen with Surrey Mozart Players at Menuhin Hall, Stoke d'Abernon... "brought the best out the players, with great vivacity and accuracy"... Read the whole thing here |
| September 28, 2006 Woods to conduct opening concert of Nottingham Philharmonic Orchestra with pianist Daniel de Borah. Story |
| December 20, 2006 Kenneth Woods and "A view from the podium" subject of a full page feature in January 2007 Gramophone Magazine. |
| May 5, 2005 Rose City Chamber Orchestra to host international conducting workshop directed by Kenneth Woods. Story |
| March 12, 2007 Review: Peter Palmer of the Nottingham Evening Post: Kenneth Woods and Nottingham Philharmonic- "A Born Conductor" |
| October 10 2005 Kenneth Woods has been named Music Director of Surrey Mozart Players beginning in 2006-7 |
| March 1, 2007 Rose City International Conductor's Workshop, Kenneth Woods- director, now accepting applications. Story |
| December 14, 2005 Kenneth Woods has been selected as one of two Music Director Candidates who will share the 2006-7 season of the Nottingham Philharmonic |
| March 30, 2007 Broadcast announcement, BBC Radio 3 "Discovering Music," 17:00GMT, April 8, 2007. Nielsen Flute Concert, Sharon Bezaly, flute, Stephen Johsnon, presenter. Story here. Listen here |
| December 23, 2005 Kenneth Woods to conduct gala finale of the International Trumpet Festival of Wales "Classical Trumpet Spectacular" with the National Chamber Orchestra of Wales at Brangwyn Hall, Swansea. Story www.itfw.biz Brangwyn Hall Brochure in pdf format |
| May 28, 2007 David Stabler, senior music critic of The Oregonian, says Kenneth Woods, looking "like a younger, dark haired William Hurt," and "Pendleton's unlikely symphony give Mahler the ride of his life." Click here for the complete story and review, here for the multimedia audio slide show. |
| December 28, 2005 Woods to conduct final concert of Guildford Spring Music Festival with the Surrey Mozart Players. Story |
| April 21, 2007 Broadcast announcement- BBC Radio "Discvoering Music Live." Kenneth Woods returns to one of Radio 3's most popular programs with pianist Piers Lane, Presenter Stephen Johnson and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in a program exploring Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1. Hear the broadcast Sunday 29 April 2007 17:00-18:30 GMT on Radio 3. Listen again on the Radio 3 wesbsite. |
| January 3, 2006 Rose City Conducting Workshop, Kenneth Woods-director, announces details of 2006 session. Story |
| July 3, 2007 The Surrey Advertiser-"This performance was a triumph. Citizens of Guildford, applaud this orchestra, it is a most treasured possession, with its inspiring Kenneth Woods, leading them on a daring and exciting journey. We should be very proud to have such an ensemble in our midst." Complete review here. |
| February 26, 2006 Kenneth Woods and BBC National Orchestra of Wales to be heard in performance on BBC Radio 3, Saturday February 18, 2006. This performance is the Saturday Telegraph's Radio Pick of the Day for February 18th, 2006! Broadcast information BBC Press Release Listen to the Program on the Radio3 Website |
| January 8, 2008 Kenneth Woods has joined the artist faculty of the 2008 Ischia Festival, which will take place from the 10-17th of May. The festival welcomes amateur players and groups from all over the world for a week of divere repertoire under the tutelage of a high-powered faculty. Festival concerts by the resident artists feature major wokrs of Brahms, Schittke, Mozart, Arnold and more |
| April 7, 2006 Kenneth woods makes debut as Music Director of Surrey Mozart Players in sold-out final concert of the Guildford Spring Music Festival. Critics call it a "Glorious Concert." |
| January 10, 2008 Fourth Annual Rose City International Conductor's Workshop, Kenneth Woods, director announced. Repertoire includes excerpts from La Gioconda and Madame Butterfly with professional singers, Brahms Piano Concerto no. 1, Copland's Appalachian Spring and more. Woods is joined on the faculty by David Hoose and Christopher Zimmerman. |
| July 4, 2006 Woods performs in first annual Clock Tower Chamber Music Festival to critical acclaim, review here |
| February 1, 2008 Fourth Annual Rose City International Conductor's Workshop, Kenneth Woods, director announced- July 21-27, 2008 at Warner Pacific College, Portland, Oregon. Repertoire includes excerpts from La Gioconda and Madame Butterfly with professional singers, Brahms Piano Concerto no. 1, Copland's Appalachian Spring and more. Woods is joined on the faculty by David Hoose and Christopher Zimmerman. Emerging Artist program provides an intense course for highly advanced students ready for professional careers, while the Discovery Program offers a chance for young conductors and instrumentalists to begin to develop fundmental podium skills with a professional orchestra under the guidance of the faculty. |
| June 3, 2008 Kenneth Woods is featured commentator in a major piece on arts funding in the Western Mail, the national newspaper of Wales. |
| August 2, 2008 A significant feature piece in the Sunday Oregonian by David Stabler on the 2008 Rose City International Conductor's Workshop, Kenneth Woods, director |
| October 4, 2008 Kenneth Woods announces his resignation from Oregon East Symphony at the conclusion of his 9th season to focus on recording projects and guest engagements in Europe and UK. Will stay on as Music Advisor to the Oregon East Symphony until their search for a new conductor is finished. Story here. |
| October 17, 2008 Kenneth Woods has been named conductor of the Coleg Harlech Orchestra Academy, August 8-15, 2009. Woods replaces outgoing conductor Wyn Davies, music director of New Zealand Opera. This year's artist faculty includes members of the LSO, Halle, WNO, CBSO and teachers from the Royal Academy of Music and Birmingham Conservatoire. |
| October 22, 2008 Kenneth Woods extends his contract with Surrey Mozart Players through 2012. Woods is currently in the final year of a three-year contract, during which the orchestra has won particular acclaim for their Schumann cycle, as well as highly praised appearances at the Guildford Spring Music Festival and the Menuhin Hall, and their regular series at Guildford's ElectricTheatre continues to draw capacity audiences. |
| October 25, 2008 Kenneth Woods to conduct Gulfcoast Symphony Orchestra in celebration of 50th Anniversary of the death of Ralph Vaughan Williams and 100th anniversary of the premiere of Elgar's Symphony no. 1 on November 1st with violin soloist Jenny Gregoire. Story here. |
| April 17, 2008 Kenneth Woods conducts the Contemporary Music Ensemble of Wales, with piano soloist Ian Pace in the UK Premiere of Mefano's Interferances, the world premiere of Gordon Downie's forms 7, Xenakis' masterpiece, Akrata and music of Earle Brown, live in Hear and Now on Radio 3, Saturday the 19th of April, 2008. Details here and here. |
| February 1, 2009 Kenneth Woods is to make his commercial recording debut with Northern Sinfonia, considered by many critics the premiere chamber orchestra in Great Britain today, in September 2009, recording for Avie Records. The project is catalogue number AV2146. The disc comprise the world-premiere recordings of three works by Austrian emigree composer, Hans Gal- the Violin Concert and Violin Concertino with the young violinist Annette-Barbara Vogel and the Tryptych for Orchestra. Sessions will take place at the Sage Gateshead in September, 2009 and the disk will be released in early 2010. |
| February 27, 2009 Kenneth Woods talks about the Oregon East Symphony's Redneck Mahler project and their upcoming performance of Mahler's Symphony no. 5 on Morning Edition with host Geoff Norcross. Listen online here. |
| March 9, 2009 Fifth Annual Rose City International Conductor's Workshop in Portland, Oregon is announced- July 20-26. Director and founder Kenneth Woods and the musicians of the Rose City Chamber Orchestra are joined by master teachers David Hoose and Christopher Zimmerman and soloists Alexis Hamilton, Brennen Guillory, Rick Rowley and Esther Mae Moses. Application deadline is April 30, 2009. More information here. |
| October 10, 2009 Kenneth Woods has been appointed Principal Guest Conductor of Orchestra of the Swan. Story here |
| September 1, 2009 Kenneth Woods is making his recording debut with the Northern Sinfonia at the Sage Gateshead in 2 weeks of sessions conducting three world premiere recordings of works by Hans Gal. |
Northern Sinfonia at their home- The Sage, Gateshead
| October 24, 2009 East Oregonian- "Kenneth Woods' Swan Song." Woods completes 9 year transformative tenure at Oregon East Symphony and Chorale with Mozart and Schumann gala concert. |
| June 22, 2010 Musical Pointers on Kenneth Woods and Northern Sinfonia in music of Hans Gal- "Like a Franz Schmidt, Gál was content to compose within the tradition of late romanticism, and it served him well for a large catalogue of music which merits thorough investigation and live performance.The Op 100 orchestral work is substantial and could well have been put out as a Symphony. A splendid CD which should give pleasure and satisfaction to collectors and which deserves to feature on radio programmes everywhere. |
| June 20, 2010 Classical Source on Kenneth Woods and Northern Sinfonia in music of Hans Gal- "Moving ahead to 1970, Hans Gál reached his ‘opus 100’ with Triptych, a set of three movements for orchestra, the opening ‘Impromptu’ energetically if severely introduced, every note significant, the contrasting mellower invention sometimes suggesting Richard Strauss’s late-in-life autumnal music (specifically “Capriccio”), but with an independence of thought and a timelessness of invention that is at once Mozartean yet also crisply contemporary. The central ‘Lament’ is sparse if tellingly personal; and the final ‘Comedy’ is joyous and inviting, and not without a flourish or two. Gál’s art has the enviable ability to say so much without being tempted to decorate, augment and make denser. Such transparent and highly-crafted scores are given superbly prepared performances here.... playing here is first-class, so too the quick-witted response of Northern Sinfonia under Kenneth Woods. Both the recording and the booklet’s annotation are excellent." |
| July 30, 2010 Classical Music Magazine hails Kenneth Woods, Northern Sinfonia and Annette-Barbara Vogel's disc of Hans Gal Orchestra Works as "Recording of the Fortnight." "Add to the rhapsodic glow of Strauss or Korngold flecks of virtuosic humour and, in the case of the Concertino of 1939, darker hues, and you have Hans Gal’s music. No wonder Vogel has recorded two discs of his muisc, it is enormously rewarding for performer and listener. Finely detailed playing, particularly of the Triptych, gives overdue credit to a composer whose genial genius was obscured by Nazism, illness and the British establishment’s neglect. Complete Review |
| July 30, 2010 Gramphone Magazine- "this superb new disc ... by the Northern Sinfonia and Kenneth Woods... Woods directs a highly polished account but the orchestral playing throughout is most assured. Avie’s sound is excellent but it is the music that compels attention. Strongly recommended. Complete Review |
| July 27, 2010 The Strad on Kenneth Woods, Northern Sinfonia and Hans Gal with Violinist Annette Barbara Vogel- "Here’s a real treat: a pair of long-list violin concertos from that most fecund decade for the medium, the 1930’s...committed performances of both pieces...a perceptively fluid relationship with the accompanying forces of the Northern Sinfonia. " |
| October 5, 2010 Kenneth Woods will give his major orchestra London debut with the New Queen's Hall Orchestra, who have invited him to conduct a gala concert celebrating NQHO's long awaited return to St John's Smith Square and the completion of a major renovation at St Johns. Details here |
| October 5, 2010 MusicWeb-International on Gal Triptych and Violin Concerto: The performers can be "triply proud of their efforts, those of the orchestra and of Kenneth Woods who enables the orchestration to breath with such clarity...t has a serious sense of purpose without dourness. It has harmonic variety without abstruseness. It has rhythmic vitality without being overly complex. It has an immediate impact but is worthy of greater study..exemplary. Compete review |
| November 5, 2010 Classical Source hails Kenneth's London debut as a triumph: "Fortunately this Gala concert – with the Duchess of Cornwall, the NQHO's Patron, present – was recorded." Read the whole review at ClassicalSource |
| November 24, 2010 It's "Kenneth Woods Week" at classical blog The Well Tempered Ear "Several factors make this a good time, then, to celebrate a special man and musician who is also a good friend of the blog. So The Well-Tempered Ear is devoting this week – with the exception of a Wednesday break for the usual Best Bets and special Thanksgiving piece on Thursday — to Kenneth Woods (below) and calling it “Kenneth Woods Week.” Specifically, we will be looking Woods’ career and at how Woods is working with AVIE Records on the rediscovery and revival of the Viennese composer Hans Gal (1890-1987, below) — with great enough success that even more Gal recordings are in store. |
| November 25, 2010 The Stratford Herald on Kenneth Woods and Orchestra of the Swan performances of Das Lied von der Erde and Lieder eines fahrenden Gesllen:: "Mahler of Quite Exceptional Quality" |
| November 2010 Jakob Stockinger interviews Kenneth Woods for "Kenneth Woods Week" at The Well Tempered Ear. |
| December 3, 2010 Amazon.com on Kenneth Woods' recording of Gal's Triptych and Violin Concerti with Northern Sinfonia: This generously filled CD is the sort of release that makes one wish Amazon offered the reviewer a `5-star-plus’ option and, as such, comes unequivocally with the highest recommendation.” |
| January 29, 2011 Classical Music Magazine feature on Kenneth Woods' project to record the complete Gal and Schumann symphonies for Avie Records: |