Nick started to teach at the Hilversum Conservatorium of Music in 1989 running the orchestral section. Students from this period are now players in the Radio Symphony Orchestra, Dutch Marine Wind band, Circle Ensemble and the Slagwerkgroep Den Haag. In 1992 he combined his work at this college with the Utrecht Conservatory of Music as Timpani tutor. When his commitment to the Sweelinck Conservatorium [ in 1999, renamed “Amsterdams Conservatorium”] started in 1996, as Senior Tutor of Timpani the number of students made him resign from the other colleges, due to lack of time. Since then a large number of Dutch and foreign students have experienced his lessons and in return given him a lot of new insights from their own backgrounds and personalities. Former students now hold positions at the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, the Residentie Orchestra of The Hague, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Metropole Orchestra, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Valencia Opera, Holland Symphonia, Orchestra Maggio Musicale Florence, Orchestra of Pamplona, the band of the Dutch Airforce, Orchestra Maggio Musicale Firenze, The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Capitol de Toulouse, Antwerp Philharmonic, etc. Both his private students as well as those of the Conservatory have repeatedly been chosen for the EUYO, The GMYO, and the Schleswig-Holstein and Tanglewood festivals.
Also in a teaching capacity Nick has been director of studies of the National Youth Orchestra of the Netherlands for a number of years and was as such, a member of the audition committees for the international youth orchestras. From 2010 til 2015 Nick was percussion coach of the EUYO. Nick has presented masterclasses worldwide, among them in Valencia, London, Lausanne, Boston, Bari, Liverpool, Cleveland, Zaragoza, Helsiki, Oslo, Bergen, San Sebastian,Tokio, Seoul and lately in Parma, where he is also teaching in the orchestral Master course. Nick Woud wrote three study books that are used worldwide. Out of the need to find material that can be used to give the student a fearless attitude towards the use of the pedals in all circumstances, he wrote Musical studies for Pedal Timpani in 1983. This book has been thouroughly revised now and is republished in 2013 by PPP Amsterdam.
To let the student experience the feeling of the repertoire, combined with interpretation and with little tips on playing in general, Symphonic Studies for Timpani was written in 1999 and published later that year. The latest book is The Timpani Challenge that contains more difficult musical studies that can be combined into little performance suites.
NICK WOUD 