Roger Woodward

Roger Woodward (born 20 December 1942) is an Australian classical pianist, composer, conductor, teacher and human rights activist, who is widely regarded as a leading advocate of contemporary music.
Life and career
Early life
The youngest of four children, Roger Woodward was born in Sydney where he received first piano lessons from Winifred Pope. His mother and second sister were amateur violinists and his father and elder sister sang in the local church choir. At Chatswood Public School, he befriended Peter Kraus, an Auschwitz train survivor, whose family's story deeply impacted his emerging vision and personal development. He attended the Conservatorium High School and North Sydney Boys' Technical High School from which he matriculated with a Commonwealth scholarship.
Woodward's early studies of Bach organ works with Peter Verco (1952–54) led to his immersion in Bach's cantatas, passion music and a training in church music with Kenneth R. Long (1955–57), organist and master of the choristers at St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney. He performed for the papal organist Fernando Germani and Eugene Goossens, after which he entered the Sydney Conservatorium in the piano class of Alexander Sverjensky (pupil of Alexander Glazunov, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Alexander Siloti) and Raymond Hanson's composition class. In 1963, Woodward graduated with distinction from the Sydney Conservatorium (DSCM) and Sydney Teachers' College. In the same year, he founded and developed plans for an international Sydney piano competition with the support of the NSW state government and a wide circle of musicians and enthusiasts. Woodward remained founder and artistic director as the incoming director of the Sydney Conservatorium housed the project and well-wishers, including the Cladan Institute, pledged support for an inaugural competition in 1977.
From 1963–65, Woodward continued his organ studies at the St. James's Church with Faunce Allman while carrying out full-time duties as a choir director and secondary school teacher. During this period he mastered works by Tōru Takemitsu, John Cage Olivier Messiaen and his pupils: Alexander Goehr, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Iannis Xenakis, Pierre Boulez and Jean Barraqué. In 1964, he won the Commonwealth Finals of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Instrumental and Vocal Competition, the prize for which was to perform with the six ABC state radio orchestras and in multiple radio and television broadcasts.
From 1965–69, he pursued postgraduate studies at the Chopin University of Music, with Zbigniew Drzewiecki. There he befriended the Cuban pedagogue Jorge Luis Herrero Dante and began working with Cuban composers Sergio Barroso, Leo Brouwer, and Carlos Fariñas.
During visits to London (1966–68), Woodward prepared Chopin manuscripts owned by musicologist Arthur Hedley, before including them in recitals at the Wigmore Hall and South Bank. Contrary to some reports, Woodward did not enter the International Chopin Piano Competition. However, he regularly performed Chopin's music in Poland: at the Twenty-Third International Chopin Festival, Duszniki-Zdrój (1968), at Żelazowa Wola, at the Kraków Spring Festival (1968) and on several occasions, at the Ostrowski Palace. He also performed the complete works of Chopin (from memory) at the Sydney Festival 1983–85 in support of the Solidarność Movement to raise public awareness of the importance of Poland's struggle for freedom.
In 1967, Woodward performed for Lina Prokofieva in Warsaw, Intervizia Television, with the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra and subsequently, throughout Poland. Two years later, he toured extensively with the Wiener Trio, was artist-in-residency at the Casa de las Américas, and at the Paris Jeunesses Musicales (1969) where the UNESCO's jury members, Yehudi Menuhin and Jack Lang, noticed Woodward's performances of his own compositions alongside works of J. S. Bach, Chopin, Scriabin and Prokofiev. In 1970, he made his debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall, and on Menuhin's recommendation, his first four recordings for EMI.
In 1971, Woodward performed his first recital at Queen Elizabeth Hall with premieres of works by Richard Meale, Ross Edwards, Leo Brouwer, Takemitsu and Barraqué, after which he was invited by Robert Slotover, Allied Artists Management, to co-found a series of new music concerts known as the London Music Digest at the Roundhouse. Digest performances of Barraqué's Sonate pour pianowere followed by a close working relationship with the composer at the EMI Abbey Road Studios, Paris and at the Royan Festival. During the same period Woodward collaborated with John Cage at the Roundhouse for the British premiere of HPSCHD for the International Carnival of Experimental Sound and BBC Proms. Further collaborations were undertaken with Stockhausen at the Royal Festival Hall, and with Takemitsu at the Roundhouse, London's Decca Studios, and at the Music Today Festival, Tokyo. A partnership began with Pierre Boulez and the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Roundhouse, Cheltenham Festival, and with Bernard Rands for the premiere of Mésallianz for piano and orchestra.
Middle years
In 1972, Woodward made his USA debut with the brass players of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in collaboration with Olivier Messian and Zubin Mehta, with whom he subsequently performed in New York, Tel Aviv, and Paris. The following year, Woodward worked with Stockhausen and on Mantra; with Anne Boyd on Angklung, with Takemitsu on the premiere of For Away, Corona ("London version"), and the recording of his complete piano music to that point in London's Decca studios. That September, he participated in the inaugural celebrations of the Sydney Opera House as soloist for an extended tour for the ABC, during which he premiered a series of commissions, including As It Leaves the Bell by Anne Boyd.
His collaboration with Iannis Xenakis (1974–96) extended from France to the UK, Austria, Italy, and the United States, during which Xenakis dedicated three works to him, as did Rolf Gehlhaar, Takemitsu, Anne Boyd, and Morton Feldman. Performing their works, together with a vast repertoire of other avant-garde compositions of the time, established his reputation as a leading interpreter of avant-garde works of the second half of the 20th century.
In 1974, Witold Rowicki invited Woodward on an extensive tour of the USA with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, during which he made his debut at Carnegie Hall. That year, Woodward founded Music Rostrum Australia at the Sydney Opera House where he collaborated with Richard Meale, Luciano Berio, Cathy Berberian, David Gulpilil and Yuji Takahashi. He began performing with the Cleveland Orchestra directed by Lorin Maazel. He appeared regularly at the BBC Promenade Concerts, at Teatro La Fenice for La Biennale di Venezia, the Warszawska Jesień, Festival Internacional Cervantino, Wien Modern with Claudio Abbado, at the New York Piano Festival, Festival de la Roque d'Anthéron and at the , Touraine, at the invitation of its artistic director, Sviatoslav Richter.
1975 saw the premiere of Morton Feldman's Piano and Orchestra with the Saarbrücken Rundfunkorchester at the Metz Festival (in the composer's presence) directed by Hans Zender. It was the year when Woodward heard Anne Boyd's As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams, which made a profound impact upon him. In July, he made the first complete recording in the West of Dmitri Shostakovich's 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87.In 1976, he began working with Kurt Masur in London, and in Leipzig with the Gewandhaus Orchestra. In 1977, he premiered Feldman's solo work Piano (dedicated to Woodward) in Baden- Baden. He commissioned Elisabeth Lutyens's Nox, Op.118, and, following the Valldemosa Festival, began a collaboration with Alberto Ginastera which continued until 1979.
From 1978–88 Woodward performed the complete cycle of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas in twelve cities. In 1980, he premiered Xenakis's Mists in Edinburgh (in the composer's presence) and at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, he premiered Morton Feldman's Triadic Memories (also in the presence of the composer) heralding Feldman's late period.. The following year, he received the Order of the British Empire and in 1981 performed for Queen Elizabeth II.
From 1981–88, Woodward performed the five Beethoven piano concertos on six occasions: with Elyakum Shapirra and with Georg Tintner. In 1986, he began a collaboration with Cecil Taylor (1986–97). He was also the recipient of Xenakis' Keqrops, which was premiered in November 1986, at the Lincoln Center, with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under Mehta. In 1987, Woodward repeated Keqrops for the BBC Proms (in the composer's presence), performed Barraqué at , and premiered Áskell Másson's Piano Concerto in Reykjavik (again in the composer's presence).
In 1989, Woodward premiered Sound by Sound, which was commissioned by the Festival d'automne à Paris for the bicentennial celebrations of the French Revolution. In the same year he directed twenty-five performances of Xenakis's ballet Kraanerg at the Sydney Opera House in collaboration with Graeme Murphy and the Sydney Dance Company. He founded the Sydney Spring International Festival of New Music (1989–2001) and Alpha Centauri, a new music ensemble of twenty-three soloists, which had presented and recorded Kraanerg. In the same year he premiered Rolf Gehlhaar's Diagonal Flying in Geneva (together with the composer).
In 1992, Woodward became a Companion of the Order of Australia. He toured Italy, France and the UK with Alpha Centauri during which he premiered Donatoni’s Sincronie with Jacopo Scalfi at the Huddersfield Festival of New Music (in the presence of the composer). The following year, president Lech Wałęsa, conferred upon him the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland.
During the 1990s Woodward toured Estonia, Latvia and China, co-founded and directed the Kötschach-Mauthner Musikfest (1992–97), and in 1992, he directed an all-Xenakis program at Scala di Milano. He also performed at the Hollywood Bowl, Odéon of Herodes Atticus, and in traditions pioneered by Nellie Melba and Percy Grainger, he performed extensively throughout Central and Regional Australia, often in outdoor venues. The same year, he commissioned Larry Sitsky a series of piano concertos, from which the first was premiered at the 1994 Sydney Spring International Festival of New Music. This performance was selected by the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers (1995) for citation, and was recorded in 1997. In 1996, he composed Five Songs In Memoriam Takemitsu performed by cellist Nathan Waks.
Woodward was voted a National Living Treasure by the Australian National Trust in 1997. During that year he performed Feldman’s Triadic Memories at Théâtre Marigny for the Festival d’automne à Paris. He worked with Arvo Pärt at the Sydney Spring and premiered works by Gehlhaar, Radulescu, Dillon, Boyd. He founded the Joie et Lumière chamber music festival at Le Château de Bagnols (1997–2004), to celebrate the life and work of Sviatoslav Richter.
He completed the degree of Doctor of Music at the University of Sydney in 1999, although by 1998 he was already recipient of four doctorates honoris causa. He was awarded Australia's Centenary Medal (2001), L' ordre des arts et des lettres, France (2004) and the Polish Medal z okazji 25. rocznicy podpisania Porozumień Sierpniowych i powstania NSZZ "Solidarność" (2005).
In 2000–01 he was appointed chair of music at the University of New England, and in 2002, chair of the School of Music at San Francisco State University, where he is currently professor of piano. In 2003, he performed at the New York Piano Festival and at the Ignacio Cervantes International Piano Competition. From 2002–18 he toured and recorded with the Alexander String Quartet in the United States and Germany. Between 2006-23, he recorded sixteen projects for the Celestial Harmonies label for which his performances of JS Bach's The-Well-Tempered Clavier, Hans Otte's Stundenbuch, Shostakovich's 24 Preludes and Fugues Op.87, Debussy's Preludes, Prokofiev's Piano Music 1908–38 and Horatiu Radulescu's Piano Sonatas, were highly praised by major critics. Woodward's recording of J.S. Bach's Partitas BWV 826, 830 and Chromatische Fantasie und Fuge BWV 903 was awarded Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik (2007). In 2011 he performed a series of concerts to exceptional critical acclaim with L' orchestre national de Lille with works by Xenakis and with the cellist Rohan de Saram and JACK Quartet, at Les flâneries musicales de Reims. In the same year he was awarded Poland's Gloria Artis (gold class). In 2018, he performed at the Canberra International Festival, toured in Germany. In 2019, he became honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.
From eighteen years of age Woodward taught privately in Sydney, Warsaw, London and for the Dartington International Summer School. He gave master classes in Germany, Finland, Poland, Cuba, Mexico, the UK, USA, China, New Zealand and Australia. He is a regular guest on national and international piano competition juries.
Legacy
Woodward is a pianist gifted with a powerful virtuoso technique and his performances are renowned for their precision, insight, and depth of interpretation, although sometimes reviewed as unorthodox for their modernity. He has received wide critical acclaim as a leading interpreter of avant-garde works of the second half of the 20th century.Among others, composers Anne Boyd, James Dillon, Franco Donatoni, Morton Feldman, Rolf Gehlhaar, Elisabeth Lutyens, Áksel Másson, Qu Xia-Song, Horațiu Rădulescu, Toru Takemitsu, and Iannis Xenakis, dedicated works to him. Iconic performances and recordings with Pierre Boulez, Jean Barraqué, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Sylvano Bussotti, Toru Takemitsu, Leo Brouwer, Barry Conyngham, Ross Edwards, Peter Michael Hamel, Elizabeth Lutyens, and John Cage are established classics.
Cycles have formed a significant part of his career, including the complete Beethoven's sonatas, and concertos, and complete keyboard works of Anne Boyd, Toru Takemitsu, Feldman, Chopin, Debussy, Scriabin, Prokofiev, Shostakovich and most of the works of J.S. Bach.
Steeped in church music and traditional repertoire, Woodward trained throughout his early life to perform established works side by side with more recent music as part of a belief that music was the essential expression of an experimental process. His concerts reflected this belief even though such programming was considered unorthodox for the time. In recital, he often programmed traditional 18th and 19th century repertoire with new, little known, or neglected works such as those he championed by experimental fin de siècle Russian, Ukrainian and early Soviet composers (Alexander Scriabin, Alexander Mosolov, Nikolai Roslavets, Ivan Vyshnegradsky, Nikolai Obukhov, Aleksei Stanchinsky). His performances of the complete works of Scriabin attracted exceptional critical reviews.
As one of the most renowned Australian artists, Woodward has worked with the New York, Los Angeles, Beijing and Israel Philharmonic orchestras, five London orchestras, the Hallé Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, London Mozart Players, London Brass, RTE Radio, the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Estonian National Orchestra, the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Berlin Radio Orchestra, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Royal Danish Orchestra, L'orchestre National de Paris, L'orchestre National de Lille, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Mahlerjugendorchester, EEC Youth Orchestra, the Australian Youth Orchestra, and the Budapest and Prague Chamber Orchestras. He collaborated with: Charles Dutoit, Lorin Maazel, Yoel Levi, Edo de Waart, Charles Mackerras, Enrique Bátiz Campbell, Kurt Masur, Nello Santi, Paavo Berglund, Moshe Atzmon, Marin Alsop, Henry Kripps, Tibor Paul, Albert Rosen, Werner Andreas Albert, Matthias Bamert, Henry Lewis, Isaiah Jackson, Dean Dixon, Georg Tintner, Hans-Hubert Schönzeler, Tan Lihua, William Southgate, Simon Romanos, Gyula Németh, David Atherton, Erich Leinsdorf, Eliahu Inbal, James Judd, Walter Susskind, Herbert Blomstedt, Georges Tzipine, Arturo Tamayo, Lukas Foss, Péter Eötvös, Lawrence Foster, Brenton Langbein, John Pritchard, Roger Norrington, Andrew Davis, Willem van Otterloo, Hiroyuki Iwaki, Colman Pearce, Alexander Gibson, Stuart Challender and Paul Terracini.
He has performed with the Arditti, Tokyo, New Zealand, Australian and Sydney String quartets, the Australia Ensemble, the Edinburgh String Quartet, JACK Quartet and the Alexander String Quartet, with whom he recorded Beethoven, Chopin, Shostakovich, and Robert Greenberg. He has collaborated with harpsichordist George Malcolm and jazz pianist Cecil Taylor in Lisbon, Paris, for the Patras Festival, and for extensive tours of the UK Contemporary Music Network from 1986–94. He has worked with musicologists Charles Rosen, Paul Griffiths, H. C. Robbins-Landon, Richard Toop, Paul M. Ellison, Nouritza Matossian and Sharon Kanach; violinists Philippe Hirschhorn, Ivry Gitlis, Ilya Grubert, Winfried Rademacher, Asmira-Woodward-Page and Wanda Wiłkomirska; violist ; cellists Rohan de Saram, Nathan Waks, and David Pereira; Synergy Percussion, Chris Dench, Adrian Jack, Elena Kats-Chernin, Alessandro Solbiati; the flautists Laura Chislett, Pierre Yves- Artaud; pianists: Yuji Takahashi, Alexander Gavrylyuk, Stephanie McCallum, Robert Curry, Michael Leslie, Noël Lee and Simon Tedeschi, James Dillon, James Morrison, David Gulpilil, Robyn Archer and Frank Zappa.
As a conductor, some of Woodward's performances include: the twenty-five performances of the Xenakis's ballet Kraanerg (with the Sydney Dance Company in collaboration with Graeme Murphy), working with the Shanghai Conservatory Orchestra, the Adelaide Chamber Orchestra; the Alpha Centauri Ensemble at Scala di Milano, for BBC2 Television, the , the Academia Santa Cecilia, Biblioteca Salaborsa, and for the Sydney Spring International Festival of New Music. His compositions have been performed in Poland, Australia, Cuba, the Netherlands, France, and at the Almeida International New Music Festival.
Principal recordings and publications
Woodward's principal recordings have been issued by ABC Classics (Australia), Accord (France), Artworks (Australia), BMG, Col Legno (Munich), CPO, Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI, Etcetera Records BV, Explore Records, Foghorn Classics (San Francisco), JB (Australia), Polskie Nagrania, Sipario Dischi (Milano), Unicorn (UK), Universal, Warner and RCA Red Seal (UK) for whom Woodward made the first complete recording (in the West) of Dmitry Shostakovich's Twenty-four Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87, which was rereleased by Celestial Harmonies (2010).
Woodward's live concerts have been recorded for ABC Radio/TV, BBC Radio/TV, Radio NZ, RAI, Radio France, Radio/TV Cuba, Hong Kong Radio, Radio China, Radio/TV Japan, Polish Radio/TV, RTE (Dublin), multiple German radio stations including Radio Berlin; Hilversum Radio (Netherlands), and for the UNESCO Rostrum/Paris. Video recordings have been issued by Allied Artists (UK), BBC TV Productions, Chanan Productions (UK), Foghorn Classics (San Francisco), Kultur (China), Polygram (Australia), Smith Street Films (Australia) Abstract Productions and Endeavour Film Productions (Australia) and the Sydney Dance Company.
Three Celestial Harmonies compact disc recordings were named "Record of the Month" by MusicWeb International: Debussy Préludes Books 1 and 2 (March 2010); Roger Woodward In Concert (October 2013) and Prokofiev Works for Solo Piano 1908-1938 (April 2013), which was nominated Best Classical Album at Australia's 1992 Aria awards. A recording for Etcetera BV of Scriabin's Piano Works was "Record of the Month" on Musicweb International (July 2002).The Etcetera BV release (1989) of Xenakis' Kraanerg with the Alpha Centauri Ensemble directed by Roger Woodward was selected by the music critics of The Sunday Times, UK, as one of the most outstanding releases of that year: "A stringent and sustained electro acoustical experience."
Woodward was the recipient of the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik (2007), for performances of J. S. Bach's Partitas BWV 826 and 830, and Chromatische Fantasie und Fuge BWV 903. This recording was also named one of the finest of the year by MusicWeb International (2008) and nominated Best Classical Album at Australia's 1993 Aria awards. His performances of J. S. Bach's Well-Tempered-Clavier was Editor's Choice for The Gramophone, UK (February 2010). Both were recorded by Ulrich Kraus and produced by Eckart Rahn as part of seventeen projects for Celestial Harmonies (2006–23).
In 1991, Woodward shared the Diapason d'or with fellow Australian and senior ABC recording producer Ralph Lane, for their recording of Morton Feldman's solo piano music (ABC Classics). This recording was record of the month in April 1991 (Télérama, Paris).
Ralph Lane recorded a wide range of live and studio projects with Woodward (1988–2018) some of which were named record of the month, including the aforementioned Prokofiev, Scriabin and Xenakis recordings. In 1991, he was recipient of the Ritmo Prize (Spain) for his Etcetera BV recording of Takemitsu's piano music (also produced by Lane). In January 1991, the same recording was record of the month (Télérama, Paris). In 2008, his recording of The Music of Frédéric Chopin was nominated Best Classical Album at Australia's Aria Awards.
In 2015, ABC Classics/Universal released A Concerto Collection comprising ten live concert and four studio performances of: J. S. Bach Keyboard Concerto in D minor BWV 1052, Haydn Keyboard Concerto in F major Hob XVIII, 6, Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op.37, Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58, Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op.11, Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor Op.18, Scriabin Piano Concerto in F-sharp major, Op. 20, Scriabin Symphony No. 5, Op. 60 (Prometheus), Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op.26, Schoenberg Piano Concerto Op. 42, Larry Sitsky Piano Concerto No. 1, Barry Conyngham Double Concerto for violin and piano, Qu Xiao-Song Huan, and Xenakis Kraanerg.
He is published by Routledge Press, Greenway Press, N.Y., Pendragon Press, NY, Praeger and E. R. P. Musikverlag, Berlin. He has published two monographs for the University of Sydney, "Jean Barraqué" in Matters of the Mind (2001), "Music And Change: Some Considerations of the Sonata quasi una fantasia in C-sharp minor, Op.27, No.2," in Literature and Aesthetics (1998). In 2015, HarperCollins and Kindle published his autobiography Beyond Black And White–My Life in Music.
Human Rights
From an early age Woodward was deeply impacted by the testimonies of Holocaust victims and refugees. He developed a firm belief in the need to reach out to others less fortunate and during the 1980s, dedicated himself to the Polish Solidarność Trades Union Movement which led to his being banned throughout Eastern Europe.
During this period his efforts were, unexpectedly, accompanied by misleading statements, rumors and damaging criticism in parts of Western Europe as well. With the downfall of Communism, the Republic of Poland conferred the Order of Merit upon him but the disinformation campaign intensified with frequent attempts to remove the artist’s personal and professional credibility.
Personal life
Woodward has three children: Asmira Woodward-Page, a concert violinist, Benjamin Woodward, director of Academy Tennis and Elroy Palmer MBE
Principal awards and honours
1976: Członkiem Korespondentem, Towarzystwo im. Fryderyka Chopina, Republic of Poland.
1980: Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, UK.
1981: Greater London Metropolitan Police, Citation for Bravery, UK.
1988: Ancient Order of Bréifne.
1992: Companion of the Order of Australia.
1993: Commander Cross, Order of Merit, Republic of Poland.
1997: National Living Treasure, National Trust of Australia.
1998: Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, University of Alberta, Canada.
2001: Centenary Medal, Australia.
2004: Chevalier dans l'ordre des arts et des lettres, Republic of France.
2005: Medal z okazji 25. rocznicy podpisania Porozumień Sierpniowych i powstania NSZZ "Solidarność", Republic of Poland.
2011: Gloria Artis (gold class) medal, Republic of Poland.
2019: Honorary Fellow, Australian Academy of the Humanities.
Bibliography
See also
List of Roger Woodward's principal first performances, recordings, and publications
References
External links
Roger Woodward Homepage
Spotify Profile
1942 births
Living people
Australian classical pianists
Male classical pianists
San Francisco State University faculty
Sydney Conservatorium of Music alumni
North Sydney Technical High School alumni
Chopin University of Music alumni
Musicians from Sydney
Fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities
Companions of the Order of Australia
Australian Officers of the Order of the British Empire
Chevaliers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
Class 1
Recipients of the Gold Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis
Australian musicians
21st-century classical pianists
21st-century Australian musicians