Stephen Wood Quartet "Chlorophyll" is dedicated to the performance of music inspired by meditations on Plant Life, Earth's Natural Processes, and our Human Relationship to our Environment.
Radiation and magnetic fields extend from all forms of life producing an energetic quality unique to their species. By understanding and absorbing these qualities, allowance is made to produce musical colors in relation to the unique personalities of environmental beings. As we receive happiness and joy from the aroma of a rose and the sight of a sunflower, we also absorb vibrations produced by those qualities. Vibrations are atomic waves of energy felt, heard, and in extreme cases, visualized by sentient beings. A sound wave is an energetic vibration with pitch, volume, attack, and decay. Energy is a mystical existence that produces vibrations of sustenance essential to all forms of life. Plants are living beings who receive energy, transform energy, produce energy, grow, move, live, and die.
As animals of ego and logic, human beings have developed to a state of extreme disconnect and apathy towards plants as sentient beings, not only as singularly responsible for our total existence, but as brothers sharing life on Earth. Through musical composition inspired by wilderness areas and natural processes, Stephen Wood Quartet "Chlorophyll" wishes to participate in a re-ignition of a once existing compassionate awareness between humans and plants.
Stephen Wood is a composer, performer, and educator based in Atlanta, Ga. With feet in many musical worlds, Stephen’s main compositional vehicles are modern jazz and classical chamber experiments. Wood’s compositional style brings together his cross-cultural musical studies into a deep, thoughtful, more traditional art form. Most recent studies and meditations have focused on the relationship of living energy and music – specifically in relation to the sentience of plants.
Stephen holds an M.M. in Jazz Studies from Georgia State University and a B.A. in Music Composition from The Ohio State University. Compositional and performing highlights include two acclaimed modern jazz CD’s with The Stephen Wood Ensemble and Postal, a commission from the Fisk University Jazz Ensemble, and Composer-in-Resident at the Okefenokee Wildlife Refuge.