Cellist Seth Parker Woods to Tour New Program THUS SPOKE THEIR VERSE To Newport, Washington D.C. And Boston

Two-time GRAMMY-nominated cellist Seth Parker Woods will embark on a tour of his new program Thus Spoke Their Verse, an exploration of three centuries of music for cello centered around identity, narrative storytelling, and polyphonic composition for a monophonic voice, from November 15, 2024 to February 13, 2025. In this hypersuite of works central to Woods' career as a cellist, the artist offers what he calls "my ode to self and my love letter to the cello and the works and stories I've been able to share for the past 30 years."

On Friday, November 15, 2024 at 7:30pm, Woods brings the program to Newport Classical in Rhode Island. Thus Spoke Their Verse will also be presented this season by Dumbarton Concerts in Washington D.C. on Saturday, November 16, 2024 and at Boston's Celebrity Series on Thursday, February 13, 2025, where Woods makes his series debut.

Thus Spoke Their Verse comprises a varied program of traditional and contemporary works, anchored by three Sarabandes from the first, second, and fifth Bach suites, dating from around 1720. Discussing the significance of these selections, Woods has described Sarabande movements as "deeply human and contemplative" - making them ideal departure points used throughout this concert to express the path he's taken as a classically trained cellist exploring a multi-genre soundscape. In the artist's words, these departures represent "opportunities to step from a familiar experience toward the possibility of something radically new."

Another of the program's key works, Frederick Gifford's Difficult Grace, was inspired by Dudley Randall's poem Primitives. In his program notes, Gifford said, "I wanted to create a musical process, a kind of sonic network of relations that would set Randall's original poem in dialogue with itself in musical time, both verbally and sonically. In Difficult Grace, I hoped to create a work where aspects of Randall's poem (rhythms, durations, phonetic timbre, syntax and meaning) would generate each musical gesture (even the title is a line from this poem); and Seth's voice and cello would be the instrument - all of the sounds in the live electronics layers are untransformed recordings of his performance."

Also featured on the concert program is Nathalie Joachim's Dam Mwen Yo. Translating to "my ladies" in Haitian Creole, this work is a tribute to the fearless and loving women who are pillars of their homes and communities, all while carrying the weight of their families and children on their backs. The composer said, "This piece and the voices within it are representative of these ladies-my ladies. And the cello sings their song-one of strength, beauty, pain and simplicity in a familiar landscape."

Commissioned for Woods by the Swedish Arts Council, Monty Adkins' Winter Tendrils was inspired by a vision of freshly fallen snow on the fragile bare branches of a tree, an image that is overlaid on itself several times over in this layered composition. The solo cello introduces the main musical line, which is then enhanced as "tendrils" from this line are superimposed, transposed and fragmented. Ultimately, five canonic lines (tendrils) spin off from the initial line and are heard simultaneously, creating a rich harmonic web. The works' second section draws on materials from the first, creating further tendrils from the harmonic, timbral and melodic implications of the opening movement.

Carlos Simon's Between Worlds is a piece composed as a tribute to Bill Traylor, who was born a slave in Alabama in 1853 and died in 1949. This evocative work reflects on separate worlds-rural and urban, Black and White, old and new. The themes of mystical folklore, race and religion highlight the complexity of Traylor's world, reflecting the newly freed Black man's inspiring bid for self-definition in a dehumanizing segregated culture. Simon said, "I imagine these solo pieces as a musical study, hopefully showing Traylor's life between disparate worlds."

Chinary Ung's Khse Buon, translating to "four strings" in the Cambodian composer's native language, evokes a broad tableaux of the composer's individual and cultural past. With the music of Bach as a touchpoint, Ung draws inspiration from giving voice to people and ideas that might otherwise be lost. As a work performed by Woods for some 20 years, it represents an integral contribution to a program of innovative and fascinating worlds for solo cello.

Program Information

Newport Classical Presents Seth Parker Woods: Thus Spoke Their Verse
Friday, November 15, 2024 at 7:30pm
Newport Classical Recital Hall | Newport, RI
Link: www.newportclassical.org/event/cellist-seth-parker-woods-bach-sarabandes-and-responses/

Saturday, November 16, 2024 at 7:30pm
Dumbarton Concerts Presents Seth Parker Woods: Thus Spoke Their Verse
Dumbarton Concerts | Washington, D.C.
Link: www.dumbartonconcerts.org/seth-parker-woods

Thursday, February 13, 2025 at 7:30pm
Celebrity Series Thus Spoke Their Verse, solo program
Crystal Ballroom | Somerville, MA
Link: www.celebrityseries.org/productions/seth-parker-woods/

Program:
Bach - Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007, IV. Sarabande
Perkinson - Lamentations, "Black Folk/Song Suite": III. Calvary Ostinato
Scelsi - Maknongan
Fredrick Gifford - Difficult Grace
Bach - Suite No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1008, IV. Sarabande
Nathalie Joachim - Dam Mwen Yo
Alvin Singleton - Argoru II
Monty Adkins - Winter Tendrils
Bach - Suite No. 5 in C minor, BWV 1011, IV. Sarabande
Conrad Beck - Drei Epigramme für solo cello
I. Moderato
II. Tranquillo
Carlos Simon - Between Worlds
Chinary Ung - Khse Buon

About Seth Parker Woods

Two-time GRAMMY-nominated cellist Seth Parker Woods has established his reputation as a versatile artist and innovator across multiple genres. As The New York Times wrote, "Woods is an artist rooted in classical music, but whose cello is a vehicle that takes him, and his concertgoers, on wide-ranging journeys." Also at the forefront of fashion, Woods has topped "Best Dressed" lists in Variety, Texas Monthly and OC Register. Woods has served on the faculty of the Thornton School of Music at The University of Southern California since 2022, and was appointed to the Robert Mann Chair in Strings and Chamber Music in 2024.

Among the highlights of his 2024-2025 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 2023-2024 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.

Learn more at www.sethparkerwoods.com.

Photo Credit: Ben Gibbs

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