NICK WOUD

Nick Woud

Nick Woud studied Timpani and Percussion at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam with Jan Labordus and Jan Pustjens, both members of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

From the age of 18, he performed as a timpanist and percussionist with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and all the major Dutch orchestras. At the age of 22, he joined the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, initially as a percussionist and, in 1984, was appointed Principal Timpanist.

In May 2002, Nick won the audition for the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra by unanimous decision and became its Principal Timpanist. After a distinguished 20-year career with the orchestra, he retired in July 2022. Since then, he has continued to perform internationally as a freelance guest timpanist.

Raised in the Amsterdam School of Timpani playing, Nick has always performed on calfskin-headed timpani using the traditional Dutch/German setup. He is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of Baroque timpani performance, beginning in 1975 with the landmark Bach recordings conducted by Gustav Leonhardt.

Alongside his performing career, Nick has been deeply committed to teaching. He taught at the conservatories of Hilversum and Utrecht and, for the past 35 years, served as Senior Timpani Tutor in the Percussion Department of the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. He is the author of three timpani method books, a book of performance pieces for xylophone, vibraphone and glockenspiel, and has composed numerous works for orchestra, brass ensembles, timpani and percussion.

Nick’s fascination with the technical development of the timpani led to a long-standing collaboration with Adams Musical Instruments, where he has served as an advisor since 1977. Throughout this partnership, every generation of Adams timpani has been developed and refined in close cooperation with Nick. As a performing consultant, he extensively tested the instruments in their intended environment: major symphony orchestras, prestigious concert halls throughout the Netherlands, and numerous radio and CD recordings. The most recent result of this collaboration is the development of the Adams Schnellar Timpani.

For many years, Nick coached the percussion sections of the Dutch National Youth Orchestra (NJO), the NJO Summer Academy, the European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO), and JONDE (Spanish National Youth Orchestra).

Following his retirement from the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in 2022 due to the orchestra’s mandatory retirement age, he also retired from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam the following year. Since then, he has remained active worldwide as a freelance performer, teacher and clinician.

Guest Performances since his retirement:

Nick has appeared as guest timpanist with numerous leading orchestras, including the Gulbenkian Orchestra, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Opera Australia Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Kammerorchester Basel, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Philzuid, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Dresdner Festspielorchester, Evergreen Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Residentie Orkest and the Noord Nederlands Orkest.

International Masterclasses

Nick has presented masterclasses at the International Timpani Institute (Houston, USA), Ueberschlag (Germany), the Conservatorio di Parma (Italy), Katowice (Poland), Luxembourg, Ljubljana (Slovenia), Paris and Toulouse (France), Brisbane (Australia), Catania and Padua (Italy), Musicarium Zaragoza (Spain), Taipei (Taiwan) and Athens (Greece).

My family: I have a wonderful wife and and two strong sons.