Alexander Woods

Alexander Woods is Professor of Violin at Brigham Young University and a sought-after violinist, baroque violinist, violist, and pedagogue whose work moves across chamber music, historical performance, orchestral playing, new music, commercial recording, and mixed media. Described by *The New York Times* as “showstopping” and praised for his “deft and sensitive” playing, Woods is regularly invited to perform alongside leading musicians and ensembles throughout the United States and abroad.

Woods’s early professional career included repeated collaborations with Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman, including performances at Carnegie Hall, the Museum of Modern Art, and the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. His international performing career has taken him to London and Oxford, where he has appeared at the Jacqueline du Pré Concert Hall, St. Bride’s Church, and St. George’s Hanover Square—a historic church where George Frideric Handel was a regular worshipper. He has also performed at the Wiener Konzerthaus in Vienna as part of the Wien Modern Festival, the Darmstadt Summer Courses in Germany, the Festival Pablo Casals in Puerto Rico, and the Golden Mask Festival in Moscow. He frequently performs with his wife, Aubrey Woods, concertmaster of the Ballet West Orchestra, as the Woodsmusick Duo and Woodsmusick Ensemble.

Recent engagements include performances with musicians from the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Utah Symphony; serving as concertmaster for New York Baroque Incorporated in Handel’s *Messiah* at Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue in New York City; and appearances with the Helicon Foundation, the Unbound Chamber Music Festival, and the Context chamber music series at Rice University in Houston. His crossover work includes performances with the Kurt Bestor Christmas production at Eccles Theater, violin contributions to Brandon Flowers’s album *Thrasher*, and featured violin in the musical backing for Flowers’s appearance on *The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon*.

At BYU, Woods teaches violin, chamber music, violin literature, and pedagogy and directs the BYU Baroque Ensemble. He regards teaching as a stewardship, investing in students not only as developing artists but as whole people. His students have been accepted into leading graduate programs and conservatories, including The Juilliard School, the Royal Academy of Music, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Peabody Conservatory, the Manhattan School of Music, Indiana University, and the University of Michigan. His students and former students perform in professional orchestras and chamber ensembles, work as recording studio musicians, and maintain thriving private teaching studios. Through ViolinProfessor, his online instructional platform, Woods contributes to the broader field of violin performance and pedagogy.

Woods studied at Yale University, the Manhattan School of Music, and the University of Arizona. When he is not performing or teaching, he most enjoys spending time with his wife and their five children.