Kenneth Allen Woods (born 1968) is an American conductor,[1] composer and cellist, resident in the UK.
His subsequent conducting mentors have included Leonard Slatkin, David Zinman, Jorma Panula and Gerhard Samuel.
His recording projects with the Orchestra of the Swan included the first complete recording of the symphonies of Austrian composer Hans Gál,[3] the complete symphonies of Robert Schumann, Gustav Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellan and Das Lied von der Erde (orchestrated by Schoenberg),[4] and new works for traditional Japanese instruments and orchestra, "Springs Sounds, Spring Seas".
During his ESO tenure, Woods has premiered, commissioned and made recordings of new works by Robert Fokkens, David Matthews,[8] Emily Doolittle, Tom Kraines, Kile Smith, Geoffrey Gordon, Deborah Pritchard,[9] Stephen Gerber, Nimrod Borenstein, Toby Young, Paul Patterson, Hans Gál, Donald Fraser, James Francis Brown and Jesse Jones.
Woods led the ESO in its first full-length opera performance, of Jane Eyre by John Joubert, given its world premiere in October 2016.
[11] Sawyers was succeeded in 2018 by David Matthews, whose tenure saw recordings of his Ninth Symphony, Variations for Strings and Double Concerto for Violin and Viola.
[14] In 2019, Woods and Colorado MahlerFest gave the world premiere performance of a new critical edition of Mahler's First Symphony by Breitkopf & Härtel.
In 2014, Ensemble Epomeo released "Auricolae: The Double Album", a collection of new storytelling works for violin, cello and narrator including new works by David Yang, Jay Reise, Andrew Waggoner, Kile Smith and Woods' own setting of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Ugly Duckling."
Woods has taught conducting in master classes organized by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and The Bridgewater Hall, and is a consultant and has been an adjudicator at institutions such as the Royal College of Music.