Kenneth Woods will oversee his first season as Artistic Director of the Boulder-based Colorado MahlerFest, which takes place from May 16 – 22, curating a schedule of varied events with “night” as its theme. At the core of the week-long festival is Mahler’s Symphony No. 7, sometimes referred to as “Song of the Night.” Other highlights include the US premiere of Viennese composer Kurt Schwertsik’s Nachtmusiken (“Night Music”) and Schönberg’s Verklärte Nacht (“Transfigured Night”).

With its combination of conducting, symposia, pre-concert lectures, films, community engagement and blog posts, MahlerFest’s format plays perfectly into Woods’ multifarious hands. “For me,” he says, “Mahler has a singular creative voice. His music should be experienced as an immersive, transformative experience.”

The Colorado MahlerFest opens on May 16 with the screening of a new film by Jason Starr – who frequently trains his lens on the subject of Mahler – Of Love, Death and Beyond: Exploring Mahler’s ‘Resurrection’ Symphony. Narrated by baritone and noted Mahlerian Thomas Hampson, this one‐hour documentary explores the biographical, musical and philosophical background of Mahler’s monumental Second Symphony, premised on the questions famously posed by the composer, “What is this life—and death? Is there for us, a continuation? Is all this only an empty dream, or does this life and this death have a meaning?”

A second film will be screened on May 20, of “7”, a full-length ballet set to Mahler’s Seventh Symphony by Germany’s Ballet am Rhein choreographer Martin Schläpfer and filmed by Ralph Goertz of the Düsseldorf–based Institut für Kunstdokumentation und Szenografie. Reviewing an August 2015 performance of “7”, TheArtsDesk.com observed, “Like the music, the dance is a tour de force of energy and invention … a deeply serious, deeply joyful fusion of dance and music.”

The musical offerings get under way on May 18 with a night-themed chamber music concert featuring a selection of songs by Brahms, Mahler, Schubert and Strauss, and concluding with the original string sextet version of Schönberg’s Verklärte Nacht, widely considered to be the Vienna-born composer’s early, break-through work.

Orchestral concerts take place on May 21 and 22, with Woods conducting the Colorado MahlerFest Orchestra – a handpicked group of musicians, over half of them from Colorado, who come together once a year united by their love of the composer’s music – in Mahler’s Symphony No. 7 and the US premiere of Kurt Schwertsik’s Nachtmusiken. Mahler’s Seventh contains two movements titled Nachtmusik – the second, compared by the composer to Rembrandt’s haunting painting The Night Watch; and the fourth, an intimate “amoroso” with reduced instrumentation and hushed sonorities. Schwertsik’s 20-minute work genially reflects on the music of Mahler, including the “night music” of the Seventh, instrumental touches of glockenspiel and accordion, and evocative forms such as a waltz and a march.

Broadening the MahlerFest’s educational remit, Woods has launched the new Mahler Conducting Fellowship Program. Three fellows – Singapore-born Boon Hua Lien who is currently the Eastman Conducting Fellow of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and Assistant Conductor of the Eastman Philharmonia; Francis Sully, founder and Music Director of the New Orleans-based New Resonance Orchestra; and Michael Young, co-founder and Artistic Director of the London-based Beethoven Orchestra for Humanity – will attend daily score study and seminar sessions with Woods, work with guest lecturers and speakers, and conduct in a public master class. The fellows, who will each receive a full scholarship worth nearly $2,000, will experience hands-on opportunities to conduct the central works of the XXIX Mahlerfest, Mahler’s Symphony No. 7 and Kurt Schwertsik’s Nachtmusiken, as well as Erwin Stein’s chamber orchestra arrangement of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4. Further information about the MahlerFest Fellows can be found here.

On the days in between, master classes with the MahlerFest fellows and orchestral rehearsals will be free and open to the public. The annual MahlerFest symposium will take place on May 21 with an international consortium of scholars, presenters and performers discussing perspectives on Mahler’s Seventh and more.

Woods is only the second Artistic Director in Colorado MahlerFest’s 28-year history. He succeeds Robert Olson who founded the festival in 1988, as an annual celebration of the life and music of Gustav Mahler. Throughout one week every May, the festival explores Mahler through symposia, exhibits, films and the performance of a major symphonic work by the composer. MahlerFest is currently in the midst of its third cycle of Mahler’s symphonic compositions. In 2005, MahlerFest received the Gold Medal of the Vienna-based International Gustav Mahler Society, an honor so far bestowed on only one other American organization, the New York Philharmonic.

Gustav Mahler’s music has been a lifelong source of inspiration for Kenneth Woods, and has played an important part in his career. He has conducted acclaimed performances of the symphonies and songs across the Americas and Europe. His first recording of Mahler’s music, Schoenberg’s chamber ensemble versions of Das Lied von der Erde and Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Somm Records, 2011), received an IRR Outstanding rosette from International Record Review. Off the podium, Woods is in demand as an essayist and speaker on Mahler’s life and music. He has given talks and participated in panel discussions on Mahler for the BBC and NPR, and was the official blogger of The Bridgewater Hall’s Mahler in Manchester (UK) series in 2010-11. In his native US, Woods achieved national media recognition as conductor of the Pendleton-based Oregon East Symphony for staging Redneck Mahler, an event that galvanized the community of a small, western Rodeo town and gave “Mahler the ride of his life” (The Oregonian).

For all media enquiries, interview and image requests, please contact Melanne Mueller, melanne@musiccointernational.com, +44 (0) 20 8698 6933 or +1 917 907 2785

For more information about Kenneth Woods please visit http://kennethwoods.net/blog1/

For more information about the Colorado MahlerFest please visit http://www.mahlerfest.org

About Kenneth Woods
Kenneth Woods is Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the English Symphony Orchestra, a post he assumed in 2013, succeeding Vernon Handley.

Hailed by the Washington Post as a “true star” of the podium, Woods has worked with many orchestras of international distinction, and has appeared on the stages of some of the world’s leading music festivals. His work on the concert platform and in the recording studio has led to numerous broadcasts on BBC Radio 3, National Public Radio, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

As Principal Guest Conductor of Stratford-upon-Avon-based Orchestra of the Swan (2010-2014), Woods made numerous acclaimed recordings, including the first-ever cycle of the Symphonies of Hans Gál (AVIE). Two spring 2016 releases feature three world-premiere recordings: Gál’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, with Sarah Beth Briggs and the Royal Northern Sinfonia, and Donald Fraser’s arrangements of Elgar’s Piano Quintet for full orchestra with the English Symphony Orchestra, and Sea Pictures for string orchestra and chorus with the English Chamber Orchestra and Rodolfus Choir.

Woods’ unique gifts have been widely acknowledged by some of today’s leading conductors. In 2001, he was selected by Leonard Slatkin to be one of four participants in the National Conducting Institute at the Kennedy Center, where he made his National Symphony debut. Toronto Symphony Music Director Peter Oundjian has praised Woods as “a conductor with true vision and purpose. He has a most fluid and clear style and an excellent command on the podium… a most complete musician.”

A widely read writer and frequent broadcaster, Woods’ blog, A View from the Podium, is one of the 25 most popular classical music blogs in the world. He has provided commentary for the BBC Proms, and has spoken on Mahler on NPR’s All Things Considered and BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme.

MahlerFest XXIX
Monday, May 16 – Sunday, May 22, 2016

Monday, May 16
6:30 pm
Film: Of Love, Death and Beyond – Exploring Mahler’s ‘Resurrection’ Symphony
A film by Jason Starr, narrated by Thomas Hampson
Boulder Public Library – Canyon Theater
1001 Arapahoe Avenue
Free – Open Seating

7:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Open Rehearsal
University of Colorado, Boulder
Macky Auditorium

Tuesday, May 17
7:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Open Rehearsal
University of Colorado, Boulder
Macky Auditorium

Wednesday, May 18
7:30 pm – Chamber Concert
Franz Schubert Nacht und Träume, D.827 and An den Mond, D. 296
Johannes Brahms Die Mainacht, Op. 43 No. 2
Richard Strauss Die Nacht, Op. 10 No. 3 and Winternacht, Op. 15 No. 2
Gustav Mahler Rückert-Lieder (1901/1902)
     Joshua DeVane baritone
     Joshua Horsch piano
Arnold Schönberg Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4 (version for string sextet)
     Renée Patten and Ryan Jacobsen violins

     Stephanie Mientka and Anne Ainomae violas

     Andrew Brown and Trevor Minton cellos
The Chapel at the Academy
970 Aurora Avenue
Free – Open Seating

Thursday, May 19
1:30 pm – 3:30 pm
Conducting Master Class featuring three conducting Fellows, Maestro Woods, composer Kurt Schwertsik
Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 (version for chamber orchestra by Erwin Stein)
Boulder Public Library – Canyon Theater
1001 Arapahoe Avenue
Free – Open Seating

7:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Open Rehearsal
University of Colorado, Boulder
Macky Auditorium

Friday, May 20
2:00 pm
Film: “7” – A ballet set to Mahler’s Symphony No. 7
A film by Ralph Goertz, IKS
Ballett am Rhein Düsseldorf, Choreography by Martin Schläpfer
Düsseldorfer Symphoniker conducted by Axel Kober
Boedecker Theatre
2590 Walnut Street
Tickets: $12.00

7:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Open Rehearsal
University of Colorado, Boulder
Macky Auditorium

Saturday, May 21
9:00 am – 3:30 pm
Symposium
Round table mediated by Dr. Marilyn L. McCoy, Columbia University, NYC
Dr. Stephen E. Hefling, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH
     “‘Was kost’ die Welt?’ Mahler’s Enigmatic Seventh”
Peter Davison, Artistic Consultant, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester UK
     “The Seventh Symphony as a Bridge between the despairing conclusion of the Sixth and the spiritual optimism of the Eighth”
Kenneth Woods, Artistic Director, The Colorado MahlerFest
     “A Conductor’s Perspective of the Seventh Symphony”
Dr. Anna Stoll-Knecht, University of Oxford (Jesus College), Oxford, UK
     “A Reinterpretation of the Finale of the Seventh Symphony”
Kurt Schwertsik, MahlerFest XXIX Guest Composer, Vienna, Austria  
     “The Impossibility of Avoiding Mahler as a Viennese”
Cory Oldweiler, Boulder, CO
     Author of “Testimony of the Senses”
IMIG Music Building, Room C199
University of Colorado, Boulder
Free – Open Seating

7:30 pm – Orchestral Concert
Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 7
Kurt Schwertsik Nachtmusiken, Op. 104 
Kenneth Woods
Colorado MahlerFest Orchestra
Pre-concert lecture by Kenneth Woods at 6:30 pm
University of Colorado, Boulder
Macky Auditorium
Tickets: $20 / $35 / $48

Sunday, May 22
3:30 pm – Orchestral Concert
Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 7
Kurt Schwertsik Nachtmusiken Op. 104
Kenneth Woods
Colorado MahlerFest Orchestra
Pre-concert lecture by Kenneth Woods at 2:30 pm
University of Colorado, Boulder
Macky Auditorium
Tickets: $20 / $35 / $48