meet Darren K. Woods

Darren K. Woods is currently the Artistic Director of the Seagle Festival, one of the country’s oldest and most prestigious singer training programs and also of the American Center for New Works Development.  Mr. Woods has been with Seagle in some leadership capacity since 1996.  Mr. Woods was formerly the General Director of Fort Worth Opera (2001-2017) a company that was transformed by restructured festival format, and a devotion to new American opera. Considered a leading expert in 21^st century opera composition, Mr. Woods was hailed by Opera News in 2012 as one of the “25 influencers in the world of opera”. In addition to mainstage opera productions, Fort Worth Opera launched a contemporary chamber opera series in 2008 called Opera Unbound and in 2013, Mr. Woods further advanced the company’s commitment to new work by starting Frontiers, a composer – librettist competition to identify new operas still in development.  Before his management career, Mr. Woods performed as a character tenor for twenty years singing in the U.S. and Europe performing in such venues as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, New York City Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Teatro Verdi in Trieste, Italy, Opera Madrid in Spain, the Glimmerglass Festival to name a few.  He is a frequent judge of vocal competitions including the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, the Richard Tucker Foundation and the Dallas Opera Competition.