Bryan Woods, pianist and musical director for the Classical Music Department of the World Chess Hall of Fame, will release his debut album. wanderingwill be released on July 12. Throughout the album, Woods performs piano pieces by Frédéric Chopin, Clara Schumann, Lili Boulanger and Amy Beach.
Ahead of its release, we spoke to Woods about the album and its inspiration. The CD is available for pre-order now on Woods’ website, and the entire album is available on streaming services.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
What prompted you to start recording? wandering?
Being part of the classical music community, I have many friends who are international, and after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, I heard from friends, both Russian and Ukrainian, that they were angry and heartbroken by what was going on over there. They were most upset by the fact that they couldn’t return to their homelands because of the violence.
It made me think of a lot of classical composers who have had to deal with being on the outside looking in, unable to return or participate in their homeland. Frédéric Chopin was born in Poland and spent the rest of his life outside his home country because of the civil war, so he was an obvious composer to think of. I also decided to focus on the music of women composers, because they have been unfairly excluded from the classical music canon for so long. This idea of being on the outside looking in, and giving a platform to people who haven’t had a chance to be heard before, came back to me.
Chopin’s Polishness was part of his music in many ways. For example, he wrote a lot of pieces inspired by Polish dance. A lot of his music is very influenced by the music of his homeland. But he had to leave his country very early in his life… People are born with an identity, and that influence is part of life. But as an artist, what does it mean when distance takes that identity away from you – distance, time? How does it continue to affect you and the art you create, even when you feel far away?
Do you have clearer answers to these questions?
I think the nature of these questions will always remain open, simply because they are different for different people. Speaking of my own identity, in terms of the art that I create, I would say that classical musicians are, in a way, like cover bands. A lot of what we do is play music that other people have written. It’s other people’s experiences that we’re recreating through the lens of my own life and experiences. I’m not Polish, for example. But I really resonated with the idea that Chopin had to constantly recreate what he was doing because he was in a new situation, in a new stage of his life. That really resonated with me.
It’s like reading a really good book…you might feel a connection with the characters or recognize what they’re going through. You really feel like you’re a part of it, even though it’s not something you created. My case is a little different because music is a unique art form in that it’s not finished until it’s been performed. With visual art, you just go and look at it and it’s a finished product. When you look at a musical piece in terms of dots on a page, it’s never finished, because the most complete form of the piece is the performance…and in that performance, it’s completely new every time.
I’ve avoided recording for a long time because I feel that music is a living art. Every performance is different. Every time I play these songs, I add more time, I play them faster, slower, louder, or softer, so they sound completely different. But I think this was a really exciting project for me to make a strong decision about how I want to interpret these songs that other people wrote.
You mentioned earlier about the potential for art to foster empathy, but do you think there are limits to this potential?
I don’t think it’s necessarily quantifiable. I think it’s different for everyone in terms of how much empathy art can evoke. Luckily, art, or the concert experience in general, is about empathy. At its core, it’s just people coming together and experiencing something at the same time. Even if the recording isn’t a live performance, you can put this recording out there and people all over the world can access it…As a classical musician, it adds another layer. Of course, there’s my experience, but I’m also informing you of what someone else was going through, maybe 200 years ago. And it was something similar to what we’re all going through now. The human experience changes in many ways, but some things stay the same. I try to make that the focus of the art I create.
