Sir Henry Joseph Wood CH is best known for his association with London’s annual series of promenade concerts, known as the Proms. Wood declined the chief conductorships of the New York Philharmonic and Boston Symphony Orchestras, believing it his duty to serve music in the United Kingdom. He died in 1944, aged 89, and is survived by his wife, Martha, née Morris, and their two children, Peter and Mary, who were born in 1858 and 1913 respectively.
About Henry Wood in brief
Sir Henry Joseph Wood CH is best known for his association with London’s annual series of promenade concerts, known as the Proms. Born in modest circumstances to parents who encouraged his musical talent, Wood started his career as an organist. During his studies at the Royal Academy of Music, he came under the influence of the voice teacher Manuel Garcia and became his accompanist. Wood declined the chief conductorships of the New York Philharmonic and Boston Symphony Orchestras, believing it his duty to serve music in the United Kingdom. After his death, the concerts were officially renamed in his honour as the “Henry Wood Promenade Concerts”, although they continued to be generally referred to as “the Proms”. In fact, Wood’s ambition at the time was to become a teacher of singing, and he gave singing lessons throughout his life and attended the classes of many singing teachers, as he could, although by his own account, he could not possess a real voice. He also accompanied the opera class at the Academy and was a member of its singing class, but it is not clear whether he was a real member of the singing class. He was also a life-long amateur painter, and studied in his spare time at the Slade School of Fine Art. He died in 1944, aged 89, and is survived by his wife, Martha, née Morris, and their two children, Peter and Mary, who were born in London in 1858 and 1913 respectively. He is buried in Kensington, London, with his wife and their three children, including a son, Peter, who was born in 1881 and a daughter, Mary, in 1882.
The couple had three children: Peter, a son-in-law, and two daughters, Mary and Mary-Louise, who are still living in London. Wood was a keen amateur musician and played the violin, viola and cello. In 1883, visiting the Fisheries Exhibition at South Kensington with his father, Wood was invited to play the organ in one of the galleries, making a good enough impression to be engaged to give recitals at the exhibition building over the next three months. At the age of 17, he entered the Royal. Academy of music, studying harmony and composition with Ebzer Prout, organ, and piano with Charles Steggall, and organist with Walter Macren. By the 1920s, Wood had steered the repertoire entirely to classical music, and was conducting the British premiere of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin in 1892. In 1941, when the Queen’s Hall was destroyed by bombing in 1941, the Prom’s moved to the Royal Albert Hall. In addition to thepromenade series, he conducted concerts and festivals throughout the country and also trained the student orchestra at theRoyal Academy of. Music. He had an enormous influence on the musical life of Britain over his long career, and raised the standard of orchestral playing and nurtured the taste of the public, presenting a vast repertoire of music.
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This page is based on the article Henry Wood published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 05, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
