KENNETH
WOODS

Hailed by Gramophone Magazine as “a symphonic conductor of stature”, American conductor Kenneth Woods was appointed Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the English Symphony Orchestra in 2013, and has quickly built up an impressive and acclaimed body of work with them.

Learn More

KENNETH WOODS IS

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF

KENNETH’S BLOG:

A VIEW FROM THE PODIUM

Mahler’s “Death and the Maiden” orchestration – Why a New Performing Version?

by Kenneth Woods | July 8, 2024 | A view from the podium, Mahler, Mahler- Performer's Perspective, Nuts and bolts, Performing Life | 1 Comment

What follows is an essay about my new Performing Version of Mahler's arrangement of Schubert's Death and the Maiden String Quartet, premiered at Colorado MahlerFest in 2024. Franz Schubert may have had an even more powerful influence on Mahler’s...

Elgar’s Enigmatic Silence

by Kenneth Woods | June 16, 2024 | A view from the podium | 0 Comments

I had the pleasure this week of reading a recent essay by the cultural historian Joseph Horowitz called “Three Who Quit,” a moving meditation on the later-life silences of Elgar, Ives and Sibelius. Joe and I will be recording a podcast on the topic later this week, so...

Catch and Kill – It’s Not Just for Politicians and Porn Stars

by Kenneth Woods | May 25, 2024 | A view from the podium | 1 Comment

I’ve just been listening to this latest interview between Rick Beato and Ted Gioia. Gioia is one of today’s most interesting and illuminating cultural commentators, and it’s especially interesting to hear him in dialogue with someone like Rick Beato, who has been so...

From Wigmore to Mid Wales Opera, and from Oregon to Worcester

by Kenneth Woods | March 29, 2024 | A view from the podium | 2 Comments

What follows is a Twitter thread I wrote in response to some excellent recent essays on UK arts funding. I've been thinking about a very important and balanced essay from Richard Bratby on the promise and perils of private arts funding in the UK. His description of...

Blubbing for Beck -Mark Knopfler Revives the All-Star Charity Song Idiom

by Kenneth Woods | March 23, 2024 | A view from the podium | 2 Comments

Maybe it’s the curmudgeon in me, but I was never a fan of the all-star charity track. From “We Are the World” to “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” I always found most of the songs saccharine and cloying, and the constant change of superstar vocalists off-putting. Perhaps...

Thought for the Day – Orchestral Audition Repertoire

by Kenneth Woods | October 25, 2023 | A view from the podium | 1 Comment

Thought for the day. A colleague I admire was talking today about how one might make the lists of orchestral audition excerpts more diverse. I take a different view. The professional orchestra audition process, especially in America, has got to be one of the hardest...

A great night with the orchestra, a bleak morning after

by Kenneth Woods | June 18, 2023 | A view from the podium | 2 Comments

It's been an amazing weekend seeing Philip Sawyers' new oratorio Mayflower on the Sea of Time come to life. Huge congrats to Philip S and to librettist Philip Groom for a piece that blew the roof off Worcester Cathedral. The word I keep coming back to is 'thrilling'....

RIP Christopher Gunning

by Kenneth Woods | March 27, 2023 | A view from the podium | 2 Comments

It was heartbreaking to learn of the death of Christopher Gunning, although I'd been aware he had been unwell for some time. Chris was the sort of person one felt lucky to know. He could be incredibly funny, even wicked. His vault of amazing and amusing anecdotes was...

Wayne Shorter’s Coltrane Tribute

by Kenneth Woods | March 4, 2023 | A view from the podium | 1 Comment

Among Wayne Shorter's many huge musical accomplishments, one can't help but be awed by his ability to establish a completely distinct artistic space for himself as a tenor and soprano saxophonist when the shadow of John Coltrane's enormous musical personality was so...

Explore the Score – Mendelssohn’s Scottish Masterpieces

by Kenneth Woods | March 1, 2023 | A view from the podium | 1 Comment

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) Overture - “The Hebrides” (“Fingal’s Cave”), opus 26 Symphony no. 3 in A minor, “Scottish”, opus 56 HEAR IT LIVE ESTHER ABRAMI @ THE MOUNT WITHOUT 9TH MARCH 2023 at 7:30 PM THE MOUNT WITHOUT, UPPER CHURCH LANE, BRISTOL BS2 8FN MUSIC @...

The Modern Violin Concerto

by Kenneth Woods | February 12, 2023 | A view from the podium | 3 Comments

There's an interesting piece in The Strad from Peter Quantrill on the state of the violin concerto. Of course, I remember well the lovely cover feature he mentions from 2017 which focused much well-earned attention on Deborah Pritchard's concerto Wall of Water,...

Goodbye 2022 – The Year Music Was Made Redundant

by Kenneth Woods | January 6, 2023 | A view from the podium | 0 Comments

Well, that didn’t go to plan. Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, it was often said that no sector was hit harder than music. Concert halls were silenced, recordings postponed, musicians furloughed. Musicians and music lovers fought back. Where there was goodwill and...

The NPO Blues

by Kenneth Woods | November 5, 2022 | A view from the podium | 2 Comments

I would like to share a few thoughts about yesterday’s Arts Council England announcement of the results of their application process for the new National Portfolio, speaking purely for myself, and not on behalf of the English Symphony Orchestra or the Elgar Festival....

A true story

by Kenneth Woods | April 3, 2022 | A view from the podium | 1 Comment

The worst rental materials I've ever been sent where those the Krenek Double Concerto for Violin and Piano, part the Krenek Piano Concertos project that the English Symphony Orchestra did for Toccata Classics with the stupendous Mikhail Korzhev in 2016-17. They were...

Connections – An Unexpected Adventure

by Kenneth Woods | March 8, 2022 | A view from the podium | 0 Comments

Several years ago, I met a composer named Donald Fraser. Arranger Donald Fraser and conductor Kenneth Woods following the world premiere of the Piano Quintet, a 2015 Classical Music Magazine Premiere of the Year It turns out his wife Bridget was the executive...

Ken’s Autumn 2024 Highlights

24 September 2024
English Symphony Orchestra
Opening Concert of Cheltenham Town Hall Residency
Wagner – Overture to Die Meistersinger
Brahms – Violin Concerto in D Major
– Zoë Beyers, violin
Elgar – Variations on an Original Theme (Enigma Variations)

6 October 2024
Colorado MahlerFest
Sunset Season Reveal Concert

13 October 2024
English Symphony Orchestra
Pittville Pump Room, Cheltenham
Eleanor Alberga – Jupiter’s Fairground
Mozart – Clarinet Concerto
– Alison Lambert, clarinet
Mozart – Symphony No. 41 in C Major

8 November 2024
English Chamber Orchestra
Recordings in Abbey Road Studios
Music of Donal Fraser

12 November 2024
City of London Sinfonia
St John’s Smith Square, London
Mahler – Das Lied von der Erde
– Yvonne Howard mezzo-soprano
– Satriya Krisna tenor

KEN’S RECENT RELEASES

Available to purchase from The Downbeat Store