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Pianist Kathryn Woodard curates and performs programs that explore cross-cultural exchange in music. Her performances have taken her to China, Korea, Turkey, and the central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan where she was the first pianist to perform the music of Henry Cowell, John Cage and Frederic Rzewski in that country. She has collaborated with institutions such as the Crow Collection of Asian Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Asia Society Texas, the New Orleans Museum of Art and the Detroit Institute of Arts to offer concerts in conjunction with art exhibits, gallery openings and symposia. Woodard has curated several international music residencies at Texas A&M University where she is on the faculty, and she recently launched a music initiative, Sonic Crossroads that explores processes of musical exchange around the globe. As an advocate for new music Woodard has worked with such noted composers Karlheinz Stockhausen, Yehudi Wyner, Ge Gan-ru, and Huang Ruo. She has collaborated with several prominent artists including Min Xiao-Fen, Paula Matthusen, and the new music ensemble eighth blackbird. Her recording of Four Studies of Peking Opera by Ge Gan-ru with the Shanghai Quartet was released on New Albion Records.
Kathryn Woodard approaches the study of piano music from a global perspective, and her research explores several aspects of postmodern pianism. She has published in the Journal of the International Alliance for Women in Music and Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East and has an essay in the edited volume Sonic Mediations. A central focus of her scholarly work has been the music of Adnan Saygun, and her studies led her to serve as Turkish music consultant for Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project.
Woodard has also performed Saygun's music throughout the U.S., and she was featured on concerts in Turkey celebrating the composer's centenary in 2007. Woodard has had several influential teachers and advisors, including Frank Weinstock, Allen Otte, Ted Levin, Barbara Conable, Alexander Volkov, Gitti Pirner, Jo Boatright and Yasuko Matsuda. |
