Kenneth Woods, conductor
Woods to conduct final concert of Guildford
Spring Festival with the Surrey
Mozart Players
Conductor Kenneth
Woods, Music Director of the Oregon East Symphony and Chorale and a regular
guest of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales will conduct the final concert of
the 2006 Guildford Spring Festival with the Surrey Mozart Players and guest
soloist Meyrick Alexander. The event marks Woods’
first appearance with the SMP since it was announced he would be the orchestra’s
music director beginning in the Fall of 2006.
Meyrick Alexander,
principal bassoonist of the Philharmonia, will
perform the Mozart Bassoon Concerto with the SMP as part of the Festival’s
focus on the bassoon over the course of the entire festival. Also on the
programme is the Dvorak Czech Suite and Beethoven’s
Seventh Symphony.
Woods made his debut with the SMP in July, 2004 in a
programme that included the Prokofiev Classical Symphony and the Mozart Flute
concerto with flautist Susan Milan, and the young conductor admits to being
pleasantly surprised when the orchestra offered him the position of Music
Director. “I had a wonderful time working with the musicians in 2004 and was
always looking forwarded to seeing them again for this programme, but I couldn’t
have been more pleasantly surprised when Allan Dewey (SMP Chairman) and I were
talking about scheduling for this year and he told me the musicians had decided
to offer me this opportunity. They have a tremendous track record over the last
few years and a great esprit de corps and I’m sure we’ll have a wonderful time
collaborating from next year.”
The present orchestra
of about fifty musicians drawn from
The
final concert of the Guildford Spring Festival of 2006 will take place at