In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer James Woodman.

James Woodman

b. 1957

James Woodman was born in Portland, Maine, and educated at Phillips Exeter Academy, Princeton University, and the New England Conservatory. He was appointed the first composer-in-residence at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Boston, and currently serves as monastery organist for the Society of St. John the Evangelist in Cambridge. He is frequently sought as a composer of organ and choral works; recent commissions include works for The Memorial Church at Harvard University, concert organist Peter Sykes, and the tricentennial celebrations of Green’s Farms Congregational Church, Westport, Connecticut. His compositions have been performed at Magdalen College, Oxford; La Trinité, Paris; Festival Internationale de l’Orgue Ancien, Sion, Switzerland; Domkirche, Berlin; Minato Mirae Concert Hall, Yokohama; and St. Thomas Episcopal Church, New York, as well as on National Public Radio’s Pipedreams and on recordings by Peter Sykes, Nancy Granert, Mark Brombaugh, and the Boston Boy Choir.

Suggested Choral Works:  

1. Twelve New Introits and Short Anthems (unpub.)
2. Arise, My Love, My Fair One (unpub.)
3. We Three Kings (unpub.)