Kenneth Woods is Principal Conductor of the English Symphony Orchestra, Artistic Director of Colorado MahlerFest and a guest conductor of orchestras, new music ensembles and opera companies worldwide. A frequent broadcaster, his blog, A View from the Podium, is one of most popular classical blogs in the world today.
Learn more about the 21st C. Symphony Project, Ken and the ESO's ambitious plan to commission, record and premiere nine new symphonies by nine leading international composers
Gramophone Magazine 2017 Critics' Choice Best of the Year
“The importance of Woods’s initiative is greatly significant, and to judge by Philip Sawyers’s Third Symphony
the plan has got off to an excellent start….Sawyers is a natural symphonist… This Symphony, like the songcycle,
is a masterpiece” Robert Matthew-Walker, ClassicalSource.
One of the most highly praised new operas premiered in recent years.
2016 Classical Music Magazine Premiere of the Year
2016 Birmingham Post Top Classical Event of the Year
2017 MusicWeb Record of the Year
Five Stars Musical Opinion
On tour from 2018-19. Learn more
These new works, not available anywhere else, can be heard in individually curated programmes to suit any occasion alongside music from major film scores, classics of the storytelling repertoire and classical favourites.
They’re perfect for seasonal concerts, too.
"Wood’s achievement, made over several years and then revised in time for this recording, is considerable and imaginative" - Classical Source
Critics' Choice- Best Recordings of 2017, Gramophone Magazine
"Kenneth Woods is a passionate and convincing advocate for this music - as indeed he was for the 2nd Symphony - and the accompanying works on that disc - too. But this is evidenced by as compelling a first recording as I could imagine these works receiving. " Nick Barnard- MusicWeb International
"Recording of the Year, 2017" MusicWeb International
"Every now and then, a new work comes along that simply takes one's breath away... a wonderful performance of a wonderful concerto Very, very strongly recommended." Gramophone Magazine
"Five stars" The Times
Forbes' Magazine- Best Classical Recordings of 2017
Classical Candor - Favourite Recordings of 2017
Five Stars- International Piano Magazine
"Recording of the Year, 2017" MusicWeb International
"Kenneth Woods conducted an on-fire English Symphony Orchestra, an array of soloists was headed by the totally committed April Fredrick and David Stout as Jane and Rochester, and the audience response to this gloriously lyrical, excitingly dramatic score was immense." Chris Morley- Birmingham Post
“…gorgeous depths of tone…a worthy addition to the Elgar canon” Classical Music Magazine
"...beautifully realised, performed with warmth and understanding, and sympathetically recorded..." Stephen Johnson- BBC Music Magazine
