We were lucky to catch up with Dr. Philip A. Woodmore recently and have shared our conversation below.
Dr. Philip A. , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
In 2017 I was in full swing working in my passion in St. Louis. I was teaching middle school choir to over 300 students a year, I was in charge of a dynamic music program at the Center of Creative Arts (COCA), I was running the music ministry at my father’s church (Trinity Community Church), I was the director of the St. Louis Metropolitian Police Department Choir, I was the director of the Northern Arizona University Gospel Choir and working on the completion of my PhD in music education at the University of Missouri-Columbia. I was so proud of my accomplishments and my work in the St. Louis community when I got an interesting phone call from a friend of Bryan Doerries who told me he was looking for a local collaborator on a project he was calling Antigone in Ferguson.
After agreeing to talk with Bryan, I found out that he wanted me to put together a democratic group of vocalists who come from different walks of life and have different points of view. I was hands down the leader for this task as I spend my entire career working with singers of all ages and different backgrounds. After I gather 30 singers for this project and a band I then learned that Bryan was interested in me composing the music for this project. I had never done anything like this before but decided in that moment to take a risk and say “yes”. That simple word has afforded me the most amazing experience with composing and working with production teams all over the world. Antigone in Ferguson is a groundbreaking social impact musical that takes the poignant story of Antigone written by Sophocles and puts a modern day twist on it with music presented by a democratic greek chorus that models productive dialogue within the context of the show which facilitator, Bryan Doerries, then uses as a model to invite the audience in a productive dialogue following the show. This model has been used all over the world with Doerries many projects, but Antigone in Ferguson was the first project he had done with music that had an off-Broadway run in New York. To learn more about the Antigone in Ferguson project, please check out Dr. Woodmore’s book “Antigone in Ferguson: A Journey Through the Transformative Power of Music” available on his website.
Dr. Philip A. , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Saint Louis native, Dr. Philip A. Woodmore has been an active member of the St. Louis music community for many years. Phil received his bachelors from Saint Louis University in Business Marketing and Music Vocal Performance, his masters from Webster University in Music Education, and his PhD in Music Education from the University of Missouri-Columbia. His research interests are the changing voice, voice pedagogy, and the transformative power of music. His dissertation is on the transformative power of music in the choral setting using the auditioned choir in the Off-Broadway run of Antigone in Ferguson. Phil taught choir one year at Ferguson and Berkley Middle Schools in the Ferguson-Florissant School District and then became the choir director at Crestview Middle School in the Rockwood School District where he taught for 12 years. Along with his work in Rockwood, Phil was the Coordinator of the Voice Program at the Center of Creative Arts (COCA) and the artist director of the Allegro Music Company from 2008-2017, the director of the Saint Louis Metropolitan Police Department Choir from 2009-2017, the director of the Northern Arizona University Gospel Choir from 2014-2017, Artist in Residency for the State of Arizona for a two year term from 2016-2018, minister of music at Trinity Community Church from 1992-2018, and vocal coach for adults and children in St. Louis, Los Angeles, Phoenix and New York.
In August 2016, Phil was asked to compose an original score of a version of Antigone translated by Bryan Doerries called Antigone in Ferguson which has been traveling the country for the past six years including a national university tour, Off-Broadway premiere and an international premiere in Athens, Greece. Since the success of Antigone in Ferguson, Phil has written an original score for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s last sermon The Drum Major Instinct and also for a speech by Frederick Douglass both premiered in New York. The Drum Major Instinct was also presented at several universities in the US and was performed virtually on MLK Day 2020 during the pandemic with two representatives from congress playing Dr. King. Phil joined the Muny family for the 2020 summer season and was honored to be the Music Director for the Muny Kids for the 2020, 2021, and 2022 seasons.
During the pandemic Phil took the opportunity to document his journey through Antigone in Ferguson in his first book, “Antigone in Ferguson: A Journey Through the Transformative Power of Music,” available on Amazon and his website. In June 2021, Phil was named as one of the newest board members for Prison Performing Arts. Phil is excited to be a part of this team and share his passion for music with this community in St. Louis, MO. In an effort to create a space for our St. Louis community to mourn the loss of life during the pandemic, Phil collaborated with Washington University Professor, Dr. Rebecca Messbarger on an event in St. Louis called Requiem of Light. Phil was named the artistic director of the event and wrote several original compositions that premiered during the historic event in October 2021 and were also performed at a lantern lighting ceremony of over 1,800 lanterns at the Grand Basin in the iconic Forest Park in St. Louis in April 2022. During the fall semester of 2021, Phil took on another passion and began a master’s in psychology at Arizona State University. Phil is excited to explore psychology and connect the theoretical frameworks he engages with to his work in the arts.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding part of being an artist or creative is the ability to creative/compose something new or interesting and share it with to the community at large. The beauty of this process is that creation has the power to shift the conversation, change the mood, offer a different perspective, and maybe even save someones life. Knowing that I have this power within me is extremely invigorating and pushes me to continue creating new and important works.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
From my view lens I think that nonprofit and other organizations that consider giving artists grants and other resources to be successful need to realize that the more stipulation and restrictions you put on an artists’ work the more you hid and diminish their voices. Artists are forever accommodating to funders because of the longing for our art and creativity to come to fruition, but sometimes money people’s vision has nothing to do with the art that the creative is trying to bring to life. I say this because I think maybe organizations give themselves a lot of credit for supporting the arts community with funding and recourses when in many situations they could do better.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.philipawoodmore.com
- Instagram: @Phil_Woodmore
- Facebook: Phil Woodmore
- Linkedin: Philip Woodmore
- Twitter: Phil_Woodmore
- Youtube: Phil Woodmore
Image Credits
Spim Media