Among the highlights of his 2024/25 season, Woods performs in the world premiere of Nathalie Joachim’s new cello concerto, Had to Be, at Spoleto Festival USA, later performing its New York premiere in his debut with the New York Philharmonic. He performs the East Coast premiere of Rebecca Saunders’ cello concerto Ire as 2024 Guest Artist with The Next Festival of Emerging Artists, and makes his Los Angeles Philharmonic debut in the world premiere of a new cello concerto by Julia Adolphe. A core member of the music collective Wild Up, Woods performs as a soloist in the fourth release of Wild Up's GRAMMY®-nominated Eastman Project: Eastman Vol. 4: The Holy Presence, released June 2024 on New Amsterdam Records. In a second new release due out this season on New Focus Recordings, Woods is featured alongside flutist Claire Chase on a recording of music by Anna Thorvaldsdottir.
During the 2023/24 season, Woods brought his GRAMMY®-nominated, autobiographical tour-de-force Difficult Grace to San Diego and Philadelphia, following the world premiere at 92NY and performances at UCLA and Chicago’s Harris Theater last season. Difficult Grace was released as an album on Cedille Records in 2023 and was nominated for the 2024 GRAMMY® Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo. Woods also performed the Boston premiere of Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s UBIQUE at Harvard University and featured in performances with GRAMMY® Award-winning violinist Hilary Hahn at Konzerthaus Dortmund in Germany. With American Modern Opera Company (AMOC), Woods toured a new version of John Adams El Niño: Nativity Reconsidered.
In addition to solo performances, Woods has appeared with the Atlanta and Seattle Symphonies, in chamber music with Hilary Hahn and pianist Andreas Haefliger, and with European ensembles including ICTUS Ensemble, Ensemble L’Arsenale, zone Experimental, Basel Sinfonietta, and Ensemble LPR. A fierce advocate for contemporary arts, Woods has collaborated with artists representing the classical, popular music, and visual art worlds. He was nominated for a 2023 GRAMMY® Award as a member of Wild Up.
In recent years, Woods has appeared in concert at the Royal Albert Hall – BBC Proms, Aspen Music Festival, The Isabella Gardner Museum, The Wallis Annenberg Center, Das Haus (Brussels), and Musée d’art Moderne et Contemporain (Strasbourg), among many other venues. Woods’ debut solo album, asinglewordisnotenough (Confront Recordings-London), has garnered great acclaim since its November 2016 release.
In addition to his post at The University of Southern California, Woods serves on the artist faculty of the Music Academy of the West each summer. He holds degrees from Brooklyn College and Musik Akademie der Stadt Basel, as well as a PhD from the University of Huddersfield. He previously served as Artist in Residence with Kaufman Music Center and the Seattle Symphony and was named honoree of the 2023 Seattle Symphony’s 25th Anniversary Silver Gala and recipient of the 2022 Chamber Music America Michael Jaffee Visionary Award.