Thomas Wood

Department/Affiliation: Music
Phone: 330-263-2043
Office Address: 205-206 Scheide
Email: twood@wooster.edu

Degrees

• Doctor of Musical Arts (Violin), University of Wisconsin-Madison 1992
• Master of Music, University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music 1985
• Bachelor of Music, University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music 1980

Courses Taught

• MUSC 138: Viola
• MUSC 139: Violin
• MUSC 156: Ensembles/Strings
• MUSC 238: Viola
• MUSC 239: Violin
• Chamber Music
• String Methods
• Music History and Literature

Three Minutes with Thomas Wood

Biography, Performance, and Research

Distinguished as the first violinist to be awarded the degree Doctor of Musical Arts in Violin Performance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he holds bachelor and master of music degrees from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. His teachers include Norman Paulu, Gerardo Ribeiro, Jens Ellerman, and the late Paul Rolland.

Active as soloist and in recital, he has performed throughout the United States and in Spain. He has appeared as concerto soloist with the Tuscarawas Philharmonic (Mendelssohn, Concerto in E Minor) and on three occasions with the Wooster Symphony Orchestra (Tchaikovsky, Concerto in D Major; Bruch, Concerto in G Minor; and Bruch, Scottish Fantasy). He has premiered works by Jack Gallagher (Exotic Dances), Brian Dykstra (Aurora Rag), and Scott Huston (Glass Children). He has held positions with the New Pittsburgh Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Pittsburgh Oratorio Society, Bach Aria Group of Pittsburgh, Erie Philharmonic, Madison Symphony, Dayton Philharmonic, and Opera Barga (Italy), and has served as concertmaster for various regional and community orchestras, including the Butler County (Pennsylvania) Symphony, Ashland Symphony, Mansfield Symphony, and Wooster Symphony Orchestra. An active chamber musician, he studied under the Pro Arte Quartet and with members of the LaSalle Quartet.

His work as a scholar of the music of Max Bruch received international recognition with the publication by N. Simrock Publishers (London-Hamburg) of his critical edition of the G Minor Violin Concerto (with a new reduction for violin and piano) and the first edition of the String Octet. He is currently editing the first edition of Bruch’s opera Claudine von Villa Bella.

As a teacher he has also held faculty appointments at Allegheny College and has served on the artist faculty of the summer music festivals and clinics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Somerset, Pennsylvania; and Allegheny College. He is in frequent demand as an adjudicator and clinician. At The College of Wooster he teaches violin, viola, chamber music, and music history and literature, and serves as Concertmaster of the Wooster Symphony Orchestra. He is currently preparing the Prokofiev violin concertos and encore pieces to perform them in a single recital in 2009–10. He was appointed at The College of Wooster in 1991.