English Symphony Orchestra & Kenneth Woods
Biographie English Symphony Orchestra & Kenneth Woods
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. Woods was also recently appointed Artistic Director of both the Colorado MahlerFest – the only US organisation other than the New York Philharmonic to receive the International Gustav Mahler Society’s Gold Medal – and the Elgar Festival in Worcester.
As a guest, Woods has conducted ensembles including the National Symphony Orchestra (Washington), Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia and the English Chamber Orchestra, and has made numerous broadcasts for BBC Radio 3, National Public Radio and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He has appeared on the stages of some of the world’s leading music festivals, such as Aspen, Scotia and Lucerne.
Under Kenneth Woods’ leadership, the English Symphony Orchestra has gained widespread recognition as one of the most innovative and influential orchestras in the UK. They received Classical Music Magazine’s “Premiere of the Year” plaudit for both Donald Fraser’s orchestration of the Elgar Piano Quintet in 2015 and John Joubert’s opera Jane Eyre in 2016. Jane Eyre also marked the ESO’s first foray into opera, and the premiere and subsequent Somm Recordings CD were both received with international critical acclaim including a string of five-star reviews, Disc of the Month and MusicWeb Opera Recording of the Year nods, and was named the Birmingham Post’s “classical music highlight of 2016.”
The first of Woods’ many acclaimed ESO discs was volume one in the Complete Piano Concertos of Ernst Krenek, selected by The Times as one of their “Best Recordings of 2016,” with Volume 2 chosen by Forbes Magazine as one of their “Top 11 Classical CDs of 2017.” Their recording of Fraser’s Elgar orchestrations for Avie was a Classic FM Disc of the Month, and An Eventful Morning in East London (a collection of 21st Century violin concertos with soloist Harriet Mackenzie) for Nimbus received a five-star review in The Times. Woods’ recording of his own orchestration of Brahms’ Piano Quartet in A major was chosen by The Arts Desk as one of their Top Ten Classical CDs of 2018.
In 2016, Woods and the ESO launched their “21st Century Symphony Project,” an ambitious multi-year effort to commission, premiere and record nine new symphonies by leading composers, with Philip Sawyers’ Third Symphony, a work described by ClassicalSource as “a masterpiece” following its triumphant St John’s Smith Square premiere in 2017. In 2018 The Spectator selected the premiere of the second work in the 21CSP, David Matthews’ Ninth Symphony, as one of the top-10 classical concerts of 2018. In 2019, the ESO premiered Matthew Taylor’s Fifth Symphony at Cadogan Hall, and this work was welcomed by Robert Matthew-Walker, editor of Musical Opinion as “a masterwork of genuine symphonic thinking.”
Highlights in 2018-19 included the ESO’s sold-out debut at St George’s Bristol with Sheku Kanneh-Mason, a triumphant return to the Orchestra of the Swan with two programmes combining Mahler symphonies with the music of David Matthews, world-premiere recordings of three new symphonies by Christopher Gunning for Signum with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, a gala concert with the North Czech Philharmonic at Prague Castle and the ESO’s first foray into Wagnerian opera with a performance of Act One of Die Walküre. As Artistic Director of the Colorado MahlerFest, Ken has overseen an expansion of the artistic program, introducing a new chamber orchestra concert alongside an acclaimed final concert which included Mahler’s First Symphony and the Korngold Violin Concerto. In his second year as Artistic Director of the Elgar Festival, Ken conducted the ESO and Raphael Wallfisch in the official 100th Anniversary performance of Elgar’s iconic Cello Concerto in a gala concert at Worcester Cathedral which crowned a week of sold-out concerts.
2019-20 saw Woods making his debut with the Madison Symphony Orchestra in a program featuring Richard Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben. At the ESO he was joined by Nicola Benedetti for the Elgar Violin Concerto, and Isata Kanneh-Mason and Alexander Sitkovetsky for piano and violin concertos by Ludwig van Beethoven as part of the orchestra’s year-long celebration of that composers 250th birthday.
Following the March 2020 Covid-19 lockdown, Ken the the English Symphony Orchestra to one of the earliest and most acclaimed returns to work of any orchestra. Through their “Music from Wyastone” series of virtual concerts, the ESO presented dozens of world-premieres of new works and new arrangements, all recorded in hi-res audio and video. Highlights have included a chamber version of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle, composer portrait concerts showcasing the music of Steven Gerber and Adrian Williams and a series of new storytelling works for children narrated by Hugh Bonneville, Gemma Whelan, Henry Goodman and Davood Ghadami.
A widely read writer and frequent broadcaster, Woods’ blog, A View from the Podium, is one of the 25 most popular classical blogs in the world. He has spoken on Mahler on NPR’s All Things Considered and is a regular speaker on BBC radio programmes. Since 2014, he has been Honorary Patron of the Hans Gál Society.
English Symphony Orchestra
Founded by William Boughton and former members of the Midlands Radio Orchestra in 1976 as the Vivaldi Chamber Orchestra then later the English String Orchestra, the ESO soon earned an international reputation for performances of English music, made over fifty recordings and began touring regularly in Europe. Over time, the orchestra’s repertoire expanded to include the full breadth of orchestral music, and the ESO grew to become the English Symphony Orchestra. Ever since then, “ESO” has served as an acronym with a dual meaning.
From the earliest years of the orchestra under the leadership of William Boughton, the ESO have had a long and distinguished history of collaboration with legendary figures of British music making. The ESO have worked with a distinguished list of instrumentalists, composers and conductors, including Nigel Kennedy, Steven Isserlis, Daniel Hope, Michael Tippett, Nicholas Maw and Yehudi Menuhin, who was appointed the ESO’s Principal Guest Conductor in 1991, and led the orchestra on a number of international tours. British music has always been a central part of the orchestra’s mission. Vernon “Tod” Handley became the orchestra’s second Principal Conductor in 2007, and led the orchestra until his death.
Appropriately for an orchestra based in Elgar’s home town, the ESO has made many acclaimed recordings of that composer’s music, and that of major 20th century British composers including Vaughan Williams, Britten, Butterworth and Bridge. The ESO discography also highlights a commitment to the music of our time; in addition to the notable recordings which grew out of the orchestra’s affiliation with Sir Michael Tippett, are recordings of music by John Metcalfe, John Joubert, and Michael and Lennox Berkeley. The ESO’s discography also includes Baroque masters such as Boyce and Handel, and composers as diverse as Schnittke, Strauss, Shostakovich, Sibelius and Respighi. Most of the orchestra’s recordings prior to 2006 were for the Nimbus label under the baton of William Boughton, with a few conducted by Yehudi Menuhin and Michael Tippett.
