Dr. Charles Wood enjoys a diverse career as teacher, recitalist and soloist. Currently, he serves as Director of Opera at The University of Montevallo and teaches applied voice. Dr. Wood also serves on the faculty at the Brasov International Summer Voice Program in Romania. His voice students continue to win competitions and gain acceptance into top graduate schools across the country and international voice and opera programs.
Under his direction, the UM Opera Ensemble has become a nationally recognized opera program with repeated appearances at the National Opera Association conferences and winning the NOA Opera Scenes competition. Each year, the UM Opera Ensemble produces full opera productions as well as an opera scenes concert with selected scenes that span the history of opera. The full productions have student casts and are complete with orchestra and costuming. Examples of past opera productions include Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, La finta giardiniera, and The Magic Flute. Other full productions include Bellini’s La sonnambula, Britten’s Albert Herring, and Curlew River, Humperdinck’s Hänsel and Gretel, Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and Suor Angelica, among others.
His operatic experience includes leading roles with the Des Moines Metro Opera, Amarillo Opera, Longview Opera, and with the Brooklyn Performing Arts Center in New York. He sang the lead role of Franco Bellini in the world premiere of Bellini’s War composed by Steven Paxton with a libretto by William Wenthe. Dr. Wood was a winner in the Vera Scammon International Voice Competition and a top ten finalist in the Dallas Opera Guild Competition.
Other personal performance highlights include solo appearances with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Orff’s Carmina Burana. Other highlights include Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the Nashville Symphony, Bach’s Magnificat, numerous performances of Handel’s Messiah, several masses by Beethoven, Franck, and Mozart as well as Requiems by Fauré and Duruflé.
Dr. Wood is an active recitalist giving solo recitals at the University of Montevallo, Texas Tech University, Texas A&M University-Commerce, McMurray University, the University of Mobile Abilene Christian University, and Shelton State Community College in Tuscaloosa.
In matters of research, Dr. Wood’s work on Romanian composer Nicolae Bretan took him to Cluj, Romania and culminated in a book entitled Nicolae Bretan, Romania’s Silenced Composer. His book led to an invitation to present a paper on Bretan at the CMS International Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia, as well as the CMS Regional Conference in Orlando.
Dr. Wood holds a Ph.D. in Fine Arts/Vocal Music Performance from the School of Music at Texas Tech University, a Masters of Music and Bachelors degree in Music Education from Texas A&M University-Commerce. He was named Alumni Ambassador at Texas A&M University-Commerce in 2004. He is s a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, The College Music Society, Music Educators National Conference, and has been inducted into Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, The National Scholars Honor Society, and The Golden Key Honor Society.
