PHOTOS
Described as “haunting, sensual, and earthy,” Leslee Wood’s spare, incisive music evokes both the constant hum of life and the yawning silence of raw nature, drawing inspiration from the sounds of the natural world and humankind’s tenuous relationships with the earth and each other. Conflict, fear, love, pain, loss, and redemption are persistent themes in her work, which confronts issues from gun violence and sexual assault to climate change.
Wood holds a Master’s degree in musicology. Her affinity for the musical practices of the middle-ages lends a timeless quality to her music, which combines chant, improvisation, and early contrapuntal techniques with colorful, searing harmonies and contemporary forms.
Wood is the founder and artistic director of the vocal ensemble Ignea Strata. She serves as composer-in-residence for new music ensemble KC VITAs, and she has received awards from the NEH, International Alliance for Women in Music, and Society for Composers Inc. (149 words)
Described as “haunting, sensual, and earthy,” Leslee Wood’s music draws inspiration from the sounds of the natural world and from humankind’s tenuous relationships with the earth and with each other. Drawing inspiration from a childhood spent in rural America, Wood’s incisive music evokes both the constant hum of life and the yawning silence of raw nature. Suite for Chignik Bay, a collection of woodwind miniatures, is an intimate picture of Wood’s primary school years spent in bush Alaska, by turns playful, frightening, and poignant. A current project, Pando is a collaboration with Municipal Ballet of Salt Lake City, depicting through music and dance the epochs-long life of one of Earth’s oldest and largest living organisms, an 80,000-year-old grove of quaking aspen in central Utah. Wood’s inspiration comes not only from nature, but from humanity’s relationship with the world and with each other. Conflict, fear, love, pain, loss, and redemption are persistent themes in her work, which has confronted current issues from gun-violence (We Must Like It, 2018) to sexual assault (The Safest Space, 2017), and climate change (On the Back of the Black, 2019).
Wood holds a Masters degree in musicology and her scholarship focuses on the socio-musical practices of medieval France. As both a performer and scholar, her affinity for the musical practices of the middle-ages lends a timeless quality to her compositions. Chant, improvisation, sophisticated rhythmic counterpoint, and early contrapuntal techniques combine with colorful, searing harmonies and contemporary forms.
Wood has received awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the International Alliance for Women in Music and the Society for Composers Inc. She is the founder and artistic director of vocal ensemble Ignea Strata, which specializes in both early and contemporary vocal music. Wood currently serves as Composer-in-Residence for Kansas City-based new music ensemble KC VITAs and has collaborated with the group as both a singer and composer since its inception in 2015. (316 words)