These concerts are the North Carolina Symphony debut for Brian Woods.

American pianist Brian Woods has a 2024/25 season including numerous solo and collaborative appearances, including Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the St. Louis Philharmonic Orchestra. He is also honored to serve as Music Director for Classical Programming at the World Chess Hall of Fame. 

Woods’ debut studio album Wanderings, released in 2024, features the complete Ballades of Frédéric Chopin alongside groundbreaking compositions by women composers, Wanderings was hailed as “a recorded introduction to a musician of rare technical faculty and interpretive insight” (Joseph Newsome, Voix de arts). 

A native of St. Louis, Woods has enjoyed success in competitions including the Verona International Piano Competition, The American Prize in Piano Performance, the Beverly Hills National Auditions, and the Artist Presentation Society Auditions. Following his debut concerto performance at age 18, he maintains an extensive concerto repertoire, from Liszt and Tchaikovsky's First Concertos to Beethoven's Fifth, Brahms' Second, and Rachmaninoff's Third. Woods has recently performed with such ensembles as the Gateway Festival Orchestra, Quincy Symphony Orchestra, Belleville Philharmonic Society, Manassas Symphony Orchestra, Southeast Missouri Symphony, University City Symphony Orchestra, and Southern Illinois Symphony Orchestra. 

Past seasons have included solo recitals in Toronto; Washington, D.C.; Nashville; St. Louis; San Diego; Kansas City; Chicago; and Dublin, Ireland. He has collaborated with tenor Vinson Cole and cellist Julian Schwarz, among many other partners in the United States and Canada. His artistic partnership with Canadian violinist Daniel Dastoor as the Dastoor-Woods Duo has led to performances for Music Toronto and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. 

Woods holds degrees from Vanderbilt University, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Shenandoah University, and the Glenn Gould School of The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, where he completed the Artist Diploma Program on full scholarship with Irish pianist and Beethoven interpreter John O'Conor.