James Wood

James Wood is a British conductor, composer, musicologist and former percussionist, originally from the United States in the verified record and based in Germany later in his career. Born in 1953, he studies in Paris with Nadia Boulanger in the early 1970s, graduates from Cambridge University in 1975, and also studies percussion and conducting at the Royal Academy of Music in London, alongside private lessons with Nicholas Cole.

Conducting and choral work

Wood serves as conductor of the Schola Cantorum of Oxford from 1977 to 1981, then founds the New London Chamber Choir and remains its principal conductor until 2007. During his years with the choir, he premieres a wide range of little-known choral works by composers including Tona Scherchen, Toru Takemitsu, Harrison Birtwistle, Lili Boulanger, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Luigi Dallapiccola, Frank Denyer, György Kurtág, György Ligeti, Almeida Prado, Giacinto Scelsi, Alfred Schnittke, Claude Vivier and Walter Zimmermann.

He also commissions new works from contemporary composers, including forms of Emptiness, Ashes Dance Back and The Summer Cloud's Awakening by Jonathan Harvey, Alejandro Viñao's Epitafios, Calacas Imaginarias by Javier Alvarez, Iannis Xenakis' Knephas, Luca Francesconi's Let me Bleed, Simon Bainbridge's Eicha, Roberto Sierra's Cantos Populares and Stramm Gedichte by David Sawer. Wood himself writes for the choir as well, with pieces such as Incantamenta for 24 solo voices, Phainomena for 18 solo voices, 17 instruments and electronics, and the church opera Hildegard for soloists, chorus, ensemble and electronics.

As a conductor he works with ensembles and choirs including Ensemble L'Itinéraire, Ensemble Intercontemporain, MusikFabrik, Champ D'Action, Groot Omroepkoor, Nederlands Kamerkoor, Swedish Radio Choir, Collegium Vocale, WDR Rundfunkchor Köln, Rundfunkchor Berlin, MDR Rundfunkchor and RIAS-Kammerchor. In 2002 he works closely with Karlheinz Stockhausen on the world premiere of Engel-Prozessionen with the Netherlands Radio Choir at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Other notable performances include Luigi Nono's Caminantes Ayacucho at the Holland Festival in 2008, Theo Verbey's completion of Stravinsky's Les Noces at the Berliner Philharmonie in 2013, and the German premiere of Wood's own Tongues of Fire for large chorus and percussion quartet by MDR Leipzig Radio Choir in 2014.

Percussion, microtonality and composition

Wood appears as a percussionist with contemporary ensembles including Lontano, Matrix Ensemble under Alan Hacker, Endymion Ensemble and London Sinfonietta. He also composes a substantial body of solo and chamber percussion music, including Choroi kai Thaliai, Ho shang Yao and Rogosanti, which he performs on tour with soprano Sara Stowe and sound projection by John Whiting.

In the 1980s he begins experimenting with microtonality. For Ho shang Yao he devises quarter-tone extensions for marimba and glockenspiel, and he later develops related ideas in works such as Spirit Festival with Lamentations, Stoicheia, and Venancio Mbande talking with the trees. He argues for the wider production of microtonal fixed-pitch instruments, and Adams Musical Instruments later produces quarter-tone marimba extensions based on his designs. He also continues to write microtonal works for standard instruments, including the BBC-commissioned Oreion for large orchestra, first performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under his direction and later heard at the ISCM Festival in Zürich with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Microtonal projects and electronic music

In the early 1990s Wood founds a Centre for Microtonal Music in London as a research and training facility for young musicians. Working with the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and the Society for the Promotion of New Music, he organises the weekend event In Tune? at the Barbican Centre between 1990 and 1992. Around the same time he also founds and directs Critical Band, an ensemble that records several albums and takes part in In Tune? and other concerts. The centre and the ensemble later end because of lack of funding.

He then returns to Paris and undertakes a major project at IRCAM, turning increasingly to electronic music as a way to explore microtonality and new sounds. With Carl Faia he writes Mountain Language for alphorn, MIDI-cowbells and electronics in 1997–98. Other electronic works include Séance, Jodo and Autumn Voices.

Later work and recognition

Wood moves to Germany in 2007. In 2008 he begins reconstructing two missing voices of Carlo Gesualdo's Sacrae Cantiones Liber Secundus, a project completed over three years and recorded by Vocalconsort Berlin and released by Harmonia Mundi in 2013. The recording receives an ECHO Klassik Prize for choir recording of the year.

Earlier in his career he also teaches percussion at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse für Neue Musik from 1982 to 1994, after Friedrich Hommel invites him to succeed Christoph Caskel as professor of percussion. Throughout his work, Wood combines conducting, percussion performance, composition and research into microtonality and contemporary choral music.