With more than 150 scores for the Royal Shakespeare Company and an impressive list of credits with major European theatre companies, Guy Woolfenden's theatre music is highly regarded throughout the world. He has collaborated with some of the world's finest directors, designers and choreographers in many award-winning productions. Guy completed the Shakespeare canon with his score for the 1991 production of Two Gentlemen of Verona and has written music for every Shakespeare play in productions with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
As a conductor, Guy has worked with many of the major British symphony orchestras. His operatic work includes three productions with Scottish Opera and, in London, the first British productions of Nielsen's Saul and David, Tchaikovsky's The Maid of Orleans and Liszt's Don Sanche.
In collaboration with choreographer André Prokovsky, he has arranged the music for four full length ballets, which he has subsequently conducted in productions with The Australian Ballet, The Royal Ballet of Flanders, Hong Kong Ballet Company, Asami Maki Ballet, Tokyo, and Scottish Ballet. Guy conducted the acclaimed Russian premiere of Anna Karenina with the Kirov Ballet in St Petersburg.
Guy's compositions for wind orchestra are performed all over the world and much has been recorded on CD. He conducted the première of his most recent work for wind, Firedance, in Chicago in December 2003, and his Bassoon Concerto was featured at the International Double Reed Society Conference in Melbourne in July 2004. Guy is conductor of the Birmingham Conservatoire Wind Orchestra, which, under his direction, is considered one of the finest young wind orchestras in Europe. Future composition plans include commissions for two pieces for symphonic wind orchestra, a flute concerto, and a choral work. His Clarinet Concerto has recently been recorded by ASV, and there are plans to record his Shakespeare song settings.
Guy is chairman of the Denne Gilkes Memorial Fund, a charity which helps young musicians and drama students. He is a past president of the Incorporated Society of Musicians and a past chairman of the British Association of Symphonic Bands and Wind Ensembles. In 1990 he was awarded a Fellowship of the Birmingham Schools of Music for his services to music in the Midlands, is an Honorary Member of the London College of Music and an Honorary Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
