Cellist Seth Parker Woods Announces 2024-2025 Season Highlights, Debuts with NY and LA Philharmonics

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
Contact: Katy Salomon | Primo Artists | VP, Public Relations 
katy@primoartists.com | 212.837.8466 

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 Cellist Seth Parker Woods Announces 
2024-2025 Season Highlights

Premiering Nathalie Joachim’s Cello Concerto “Had to Be” at 
Spoleto Festival USA, New York Philharmonic (Debut), 
Orchestre Métropolitain, and Chautauqua Institution

LA Philharmonic Debut in World Premiere Concerto by Julia Adolphe

Plus, the East Coast Premiere of Rebecca Saunders’ Concerto in 
New York, Presented by The Next Festival of Emerging Artists

Featured Soloist in Wild Up’s Julius Eastman Vol. 4: The Holy Presence,
Out June 21, 2024 on New Amsterdam Records 
Pre-Order Julius Eastman Vol. 4: The Holy Presence

“A cellist of prodigious technical gifts and sharp intellect... Woods is an artist
rooted in classical music, but whose cello is a vehicle that takes him, and his 
concertgoers, on wide-ranging journeys.” – The New York Times

“Seth Parker Woods's cello is at once an instrument, prop, and 
weapon of mass distraction” – BBC Music Magazine

www.sethparkerwoods.com 
 

New York, NY (May 29, 2024) – Celebrated by The Guardian as “a cellist of power and grace” possessing “mature artistry and willingness to go to the brink,” two-time GRAMMY®-nominated cellist Seth Parker Woods announces highlights of his 2024-2025 season. Woods’ projects delve deep into our cultural fabric, reimagining traditional works and commissioning new ones to propel classical music into the future. 

On the heels of an exciting 2023-2024 season, highlighted by his April 2023 album Difficult Grace (Cedille) and subsequent nomination for a 2024 GRAMMY® Award, Woods features in several landmark projects for 2024-2025. Highlights include his New York Philharmonic debut performing the New York premiere of a cello concerto by Nathalie Joachim, Had to Be, part of a consortium with Chautauqua Institution, Orchestre Métropolitain and Spoleto Festival USA that sees its world premiere at Spoleto USA. Among his other upcoming engagements, Woods performs the East Coast premiere of Rebecca Saunders’ cello concerto Ire as 2024 Guest Artist with The Next Festival of Emerging Artists. He later makes his LA Philharmonic debut in the world premiere of a new cello concerto by Julia Adolphe. 

Woods is a featured soloist in the fourth release of Wild Up's GRAMMY®-nominated Eastman Project: Eastman Vol. 4: The Holy Presence, an exploration of composer Julius Eastman’s works on religious themes out June 21, 2024 on New Amsterdam Records. Throughout their multi-volume Eastman compendium released with New Amsterdam Records, Wild Up have sought to pay tribute with expansive interpretations of Eastman’s idiosyncratic scores that tap into the composer’s revolutionary spirit. 2021’s Julius Eastman Vol. 1: Femenine was hailed as “a masterpiece” (The New York Times); 2022’s Julius Eastman Vol. 2: Joy Boy was called “glorious” by NPR; and 2023’s Julius Eastman Vol. 3: If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich? was called “a deliriously great tribute” (The Guardian). The latter two volumes garnered GRAMMY® nominations, for Best Orchestral Performance (for “Stay On It”) and Best Classical Compendium, respectively. 

With the forthcoming Julius Eastman Vol. 4: The Holy Presence, Wild Up digs ever deeper into the works of  Eastman’s oeuvre, performing lesser-known works that represent a mystically charged and spiritually reflective vein of his dynamic catalog. The late composer not only took innovative approaches to orchestration and musical notation but injected a defiantly Black, queer perspective into the overwhelmingly white, straight world of classical music. 

In a brand new arrangement for ten cellos, all ten parts are performed by Woods, alongside nine recordings of himself. The title track, The Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc, is performed from a restored score prepared by composer and cellist Clarice Jensen. While the piece had been captured on a 2005 album of Eastman’s work, Unjust Malaise (New World Records), the written score had been lost. Wishing to bring it back to live performance, Jensen transcribed the recording into a new score that premiered at The Kitchen in New York City in 2016. It has since been published by Wise Music. The piece represents Eastman’s tribute to the medieval heroine who somewhat paradoxically has become both the personification of fiery religious conviction and a retrospective queer icon. In addition, keyboardist Richard Valitutto is an expressive blur on the tumultuous track Piano 2, while vocalist Davóne Tines lends an authoritative ominousness to the acapella Prelude To The Holy Presence Of Joan D’Arc and the first single, Our Father, released on May 1. 

Woods shares, “My gateway into Eastman’s world started 10 years ago when I was sent a live recording from 1981 of his monumental work The Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc for ten cellos live at The Kitchen. Last year, after many years of performing and coaching this work globally, I finally created my version for multi-tracked cellos over the course of two months and eight sessions.”

2220 Arts & Archive in Los Angeles hosts the release party for the album on Friday, June 21, 2024, featuring Woods in the world premiere version of The Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc for solo cello and multi-track cellists, followed by a conversation about Eastman’s work and influence. Wild Up and Woods, a core member of the music collective, tour the Eastman program to the Ruhrtriennale Festival in Germany for concerts from Sunday, August 25 to Saturday, August 31, 2024; and throughout a U.S. tour that opens on Sunday, February 23, 2024 and culminates at the LA Phil’s Green Umbrella Series at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Tuesday, March 4, 2025. Woods also tours works by Eastman to The Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha, Nebraska on Thursday, August 15, 2024 and to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston on Sunday, November 24, 2024.

Woods’ summer officially begins on Saturday, June 1, 2024, when he performs the world premiere of a new cello concerto, Had To Be, written for him by GRAMMY®-nominated flutist, singer, and composer Nathalie Joachim and conducted by Timothy Myers at the Spoleto Festival USA. Co-commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, Orchestre Métropolitain, Spoleto Festival USA, and Chautauqua Institution, Had To Be was written for Woods and is inspired by the Black dandy movement – an empowered reclaiming of self, an assertion of the right to define ones own identity, and the freedom to be authentically expressive. Each portion of the work approaches this idea from various lenses in the African musical diaspora, creating a broader sonic geography that itself is a statement on the connection of style to freedom. Joachim writes, “A Black dandy is a gentleman who defies a monolithic understanding of Black masculinity by intentionally appropriating classical European fashion with an African diasporic aesthetic and sensibility. It places the Black male figure before the orchestra, a pinnacle of eurocentricity in classical music, and playfully but assertively disrupts its existing conventions. This piece, like its inspiration, is positive, prideful, and radical all at once. It represents the perpetually colorful and complex dance between race, class, gender, power and style.”

Woods brings Had To Be to another of its co-commissioners, the Chautauqua Institution, on Thursday, August 8, 2024, performing the piece alongside the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra led by guest conductor Naomi Woo in her Chautauqua debut.

On Thursday, October 17, 2024 and Friday, October 18, 2024, Woods makes his highly anticipated NY Phil debut in the program Afromodernism: Music of the African Diaspora at the Wu Tsai Theater in David Geffen Hall. Conducted by Thomas Wilkins In this program, Nathalie Joachim’s newly penned cello concerto is paired with Carlos Simon’s Four Black American Dances, David Baker’s Kosbro, and William Grant Still's Autochthonous Symphony.

Finally, the Orchestre Métropolitain (OM) in Montreal presents the Joachim Concerto’s Canadian premiere from Tuesday, November 26 to Saturday, November 30, 2024, led by Naomi Woo, marking Woods’ Canadian concerto and OM debuts. 

On Friday, June 7, 2024 at PS21 in Chatham, New York and Saturday, June 8, 2024 at Kaufman Music Center’s Merkin Hall, Woods appears as a guest artist and soloist as part of The Next Festival of Emerging Artists 2024 in the East Coast premiere performances of Rebecca Saunders’ Ire, a concerto for cello, strings, and percussion. Founder and Festival Artistic Director Peter Askim also leads a string orchestra composed of some of the world's foremost early-career string players in the world premiere of three new commissions – composed, respectively, by Askim, Curtis Stewart and Michael R. Dudley. Saunders’ Ire (2012) is the last in a series of three string works exploring the sonic potential of a tiny fragment of sound, the trill. The composer says of the piece, “the sonic potential is pushed almost to breaking point, the bow revealing again and again the fast quasi-mechanical manic trilling sound that lies hidden beneath the surface of silence.” 

On Friday, November 15, 2024, Newport Classical in Rhode Island presents Seth Parker Woods: Thus Spoke Their Verse. This performance is an exploration of three centuries of music for cello centering around identity, narrative storytelling and polyphonic composition for a monophonic voice. The evening is anchored by three Sarabandes from the first, second, and fifth Bach suites. Woods has expressed that for him, the Sarabandes of any suite have always felt the most human and contemplative portions of the work – making them ideal departure points used throughout this concert as opportunities to step from a familiar experience toward the possibility of something radically new. The program will also be presented this season by Dumbarton Concerts in Washington D.C. on Saturday, November 16, 2024 and at Boston’s Celebrity Series, marking Woods’ series debut, on Thursday, February 13, 2025.

In performances from Friday, May 16, 2025 to Sunday, May 18, 2025, the Los Angeles Philharmonic presents Woods in the world premiere of a new concerto by Julie Adolphe. Led by renowned conductor Ludovic Morlot, the program captures the spirit of Spanish dances with features from Granados’ Tres danzas españolas and Ravel’s Pavane for a Dead Princess, Rapsodie espagnole, and Boléro. 

On Saturday, May 31, 2025, the San Diego Symphony presents cellist Woods in his GRAMMY®-nominated multimedia concert tour-de-force, Difficult Grace, at the Jacobs Music Center, part of its Currents Series. Difficult Grace features film, spoken text, original choreography and dance by Roderick George; visual artwork; and new musical commissions. The concert will be part of the symphony’s reopening season at Jacobs Music Center, which has been closed since the pandemic shutdowns due to a $125 million renovation now due to be unveiled.

Difficult Grace is a semi-autobiographical exploration of identity; past/present histories and personal growth that draws inspiration from the Great Migration; the historic newspaper The Chicago Defender; immigration; and the poetry of Kemi Alabi and Dudley Randall. An evocative, theatrical, and genre-bending collaboration with choreographer/dancer George, Difficult Grace features Woods in the triple role of cellist, narrator/guide, and movement artist, performing music written for and with him by Freida Abtan, Monty Adkins, Fredrick Gifford, Ted Hearne, Nathalie Joachim and Pierre Alexandre Tremblay with visual artwork by Jacob Lawrence, Barbara Earl Thomas, Zoë McLean, and Freida Abtan. The production features sound design by Christopher Botta and lighting and visual design by Thomas Dunn.

Seth Parker Woods 2024-2025 Season Calendar

Saturday, June 1, 2024 at 7:30pm
Spoleto Festival USA Presents Mahler Fifth (Joachim World Premiere)
Charleston Gaillard Center | Charleston, SC
Link: https://spoletousa.org/events/mahler/

Friday, June 7, 2024 at 7:30pm
The Next Festival of Emerging Artists (Saunders Concerto East Coast Premiere)
PS21 Performance Spaces for the 21st Century | Chatham, NY
Link: https://ps21chatham.org/events/the-next-festival-of-emerging-artists-world-premieres-featuring-guest-violinist-curtis-stewart-and-cellist-seth-parker-woods/ 

Saturday, June 8, 2024 at 7:30pm
The Next Festival of Emerging Artists (Saunders Concerto NYC Premiere)
Kaufman Music Center Merkin Hall | New York, NY
Link: www.kaufmanmusiccenter.org/mch/event/the-next-festival-with-seth-parker-woods/ 

Saturday, June 16, 2024 – Sunday, June 30, 2024 
Music Academy of the West Teaching Artist

Friday, June 21, 2024 at 8:00pm
Julius Eastman / Seth Parker Woods: The Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc
2220 Arts Archives | Los Angeles, CA
Link: https://endless-season.wildup.org/2023-24/event/eastman-parker-woods/ 

Thursday, August 8, 2024 at 8:15pm
Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: A Joachim Premiere
Chautauqua Institution Amphitheater | Chautauqua, NY (Joachim NY Premiere)
Link: www.chq.org/event/chautauqua-symphony-orchestra-15/ 

Thursday, August 15, 2024 at 8:00pm
Julius Eastman / Seth Parker Woods: The Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc
Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts | Omaha, NE
Link: www.ticketleap.events/tickets/bemis-center-for-contemporary-arts/julius-eastman-seth-parker-woods-the-holy-presence-of-joan-d-arc-1981 

August 25, 2024 – August 31, 2024
Ruhrtriennale Festival of the Arts Presents Wild Up
Turbinenhalle at the Jahrhunderthalle (Ruhrtriennale Festival) | Bochum, Germany

Sunday, August 25, 2024
Appetizer Concerts: Wild Up: Julius Eastman - Crazy N****r
Link: www.ruhrtriennale.de/en/programme/appetizer-konzerte/150#25.-aug-–-wild-up

Thursday, August 29, 2024
Erased Music: Julius Eastman - Buddha, With: Wild Up
Link: www.ruhrtriennale.de/en/programme/erased-music-julius-eastman/139#buddha

Friday, August 30, 2024 – Saturday, August 31, 2024
Erased Music: Julius Eastman - Evil N****r, Gay Guerrilla, Crazy N****r, With: Wild Up
Link: www.ruhrtriennale.de/en/programme/erased-music-julius-eastman/139#evil-n****r/-gay-guerrilla/-crazy-n****r

Thursday, October 17, 2024 at 7:30pm
Friday, October 18, 2024 at 7:30pm
New York Philharmonic Presents Afromodernism: Music of the African Diaspora (Joachim NYC Premiere - SPW Debut)
Wu Tsai Theater, David Geffen Hall | New York, NY
Link: www.nyphil.org/concerts-tickets/2425/wilkins-woods/ 

Friday, November 15, 2024 at 7:30pm
Newport Classical Presents Seth Parker Woods: Thus Spoke Their Verse
Newport Classical Recital Hall | Newport, RI
Link: TBA

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

Sunday, November 24, 2024 at 1:30pm
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Presents Julius Eastman x Kyle Marshall 
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum | Boston, MA
Tickets: Member Preview: August 7-13, 2024; General Public: August 14, 2024

Tuesday, November 26, 2024 at 7:30pm
Wednesday, November 27, 2024 at 7:30pm
Thursday, November 28, 2024 at 7:30pm
Friday, November 29, 2024 at 8:00pm
Saturday, November 30, 2024 at 7:30pm
Orchestre Métropolitain Presents Joachim’s Cello Concerto
Various Venues | Montreal, QC
Link: https://orchestremetropolitain.com/en/concerts/eternal-orlando/

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/

Sunday, February 23, 2024 - Tuesday, March 4, 2025
Wild Up Eastman Tour
Link: www.wildup.org/events 

Tuesday, March 4, 2025 at 8:00pm
Green Umbrella New Music Series Presents Wild Up in To The Fullest: The Music of Julius Eastman and Arthur Russell
Walt Disney Concert Hall | Los Angeles, CA
Link: www.laphil.com/events/performances/3505/2025-03-04/to-the-fullest-the-music-of-julius-eastman-and-arthur-russell

Friday, May 16, 2025 at 8:00pm
Saturday, May 17, 2024 at 2:00pm
Sunday, May 18, 2025 at 2:00pm
Los Angeles Philharmonic Presents Julie Adolphe Concerto (World Premiere)
Walt Disney Hall | Los Angeles, CA
Link: www.laphil.com/events/performances/3130/2025-05-16/ravel-adolphe

Saturday, May 31, 2025 at 7:30pm
San Diego Symphony Presents Difficult Grace
Jacobs Music Center | San Diego, CA
Link: www.sandiegosymphony.org/performances/difficult-grace/

Julius Eastman Vol. 4: The Holy Presence Album Information

Tracklist:
1. Our Father [4:47]
    Davóne Tines, voice; Richard Valitutto, piano; Wild Up arranged by Christopher Rountree and Davóne Tines

2. Piano 2 [14:08]
    Richard Valitutto, piano

3. Prelude to the Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc  [10:07]
    Seth Parker Woods, cello and electronics;  Davóne Tines, voice

4. The Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc  [20:09]
    Seth Parker Woods, cello and electronics; Transcribed by Clarice Jensen

Total Time: 49:11

Wild Up
Davóne Tines
Richard Valitutto
Seth Parker Woods

Wild Up
Andrew McIntosh, viola
Mona Tian, viola
Linnea Powell, viola
Diana Wade, viola
Derek Stein, cello
Hillary Smith, cello
Christopher Ahn, cello
Niall Taro Ferguson, cello
Seth Parker Woods, cello
Stephen Pfeifer, bass
Marlon Martinez, bass

Davóne Tines, voice
Richard Valitutto, piano
Seth Parker Woods, cello
Christopher Rountree, conductor / artistic director

Album Credits
Produced, recorded, and mixed by Lewis Pesacov with additional production by Christopher Rountree
Engineered by Lewis Pesacov and Clint Welander
Additional mixing on Prelude to the Holy Presence of Joan d'Arc by Clint Welander
Recorded at East West Studios, Infinitespin Studio, and Sunset Sound
Mixed at Ahata Sound
Mastered by Reuben Cohen at Lurssen Mastering, Los Angeles, CA
Designer: Andrea Hyde
Cover Photo: Christine Rusiniak
Session Photos: Glen Hahn and Sam Lee
Live Photo: Joe Sinnott
Liner Notes: Harmony Holiday
Executive Producer: Elizabeth Cline
Production Associate: Glenna Adkins

About Seth Parker Woods 
Hailed by The Guardian as “a cellist of power and grace” who possesses “mature artistry and willingness to go to the brink,” two-time GRAMMY®-nominated cellist Seth Parker Woods has established his reputation as a versatile artist and innovator across multiple genres. Woods’ projects delve deep into our cultural fabric, reimagining traditional works and commissioning new ones to propel classical music into the future. 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 the OC Register, among others. He is an honoree of the 2023 Seattle Symphony’s 25th Anniversary Silver Gala and recipient of the 2022 Chamber Music America Michael Jaffee Visionary Award.

During the 2023-2024 season, Woods performed the Boston premiere of Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s UBIQUE at Harvard University and appeared with violinist Hilary Hahn at Germany’s Konzerthaus Dortmund. With American Modern Opera Company, Woods toured a new version of John Adams’ El Niño: Nativity Reconsidered. Among several projects with Chamber Music Detroit, Woods appeared in two performances of Fallen Petals, a program inspired by stories of juvenile offenders serving life in prison. Other engagements brought him to the Chicago Humanities Festival, Illumina Festival in Brazil, the Spoleto Festival in Charleston and on tour with USC to Montreal. 

Woods’ 2022-2023 season brought breakout performances Difficult Grace with choreographer Roderick George, premiering at 92NY followed by performances at UCLA and Chicago’s Harris Theater. Difficult Grace was released as an album on Cedille Records in 2023. Woods also performed on the soundtrack of the PBS documentary The U.S. and the Holocaust.

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 a wide range of artists representing the classical, popular music, and visual art worlds. He was nominated for a 2023 Grammy Award as a member of celebrated new music ensemble 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 release in November 2016.

Woods serves on the faculty of the Thornton School of Music at The University of Southern California. He holds degrees from Brooklyn College, Musik Akademie der Stadt Basel, and a PhD from the University of Huddersfield. He previously served as Artist in Residence with the Kaufman Music Center and the Seattle Symphony. Learn more at www.sethparkerwoods.com. 

*Photo Credit: Ben Gibbs

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