Toby Woods ’27 died on Feb. 21 at the age of 18. He was a prospective economics and music major who graduated as valedictorian of his class at New Canaan High School in New Canaan, Conn. before matriculating at the College. He is remembered by those who knew him as a kind friend, a dedicated musician, and an impressive intellectual who cared deeply about his passions and relationships. Fourteen of his family members, friends, and instructors shared memories of Woods with the Record.
Woods studied piano and cello since childhood, and loved ones described his commitment to music as immersed, attentive, and joyous. “It’s hard to convey how much music meant to Toby — from playing cello and piano, to going to concerts, to studying it,” his parents, Kristina and Peter Woods, wrote in a joint email to the Record.
His parents wrote that Toby was especially drawn to composers like Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler, whose intense, romantic compositions “just fill the hall,” especially at the concerts they attended together.
“You could sense the way there was an electricity between him and the music,” they wrote. “Sometimes at a concert, we’d steal a glance at each other when we knew a good bit was coming and share the tingle of anticipation together.”
In an excerpt from his college essay, which President Maud S. Mandel shared in an all-campus email on Feb. 23, Woods described his attitude toward performance and his own arrangement of Johannes Brahms’ iconic Double Concerto. “I have the entire piece memorized and I’m the one playing the notes, but Brahms is in control; I’m but a wanderer in the world he created,” he wrote. “There’s something more than just the science of sound waves at work; the music lifts my soul. It feels discovered, not composed.”
At the College, Woods was a dedicated member of Cello Shots and the Berkshire Symphony Orchestra and took cello lessons. He was widely regarded by friends and instructors as a talented and diligent musician who embraced challenging technical work.
Tommy Clarke ’25, who befriended Woods through Cello Shots, remembered that when the group was selecting parts for its performance of “Halo” by Beyoncé, Woods opted to learn the most skillfully-daunting part of the arrangement, though he was already learning an advanced repertoire of music that semester. “It brought him joy to be able to take on a challenge,” he said. “And then he’d play it flawlessly.”
Gus Demerath ’25, who met Woods when he joined Cello Shots last fall, described Woods’ study of classical composers as avid and acute, often inviting others to explore those artists, whom they now hold dear.
During their first conversation, Demerath and Woods exchanged favorite composers after bonding over how unpopular classical was among their generation, Demerath wrote to the Record.
“He recommended one specific piece to me I’d hadn’t heard, Bruckner’s 7th Symphony,” he wrote. “I’ve been listening to it and never got the chance to tell him how much I enjoy it.”
Woods was “an extremely talented musician and cellist,” Demerath added.
Sam Drescher ’25, who also performed with Woods in Cello Shots, also emphasized the depth of his musicality. “His love of music has inspired me to seek the emotion and beauty that is playing my cello, and it has exposed me to a community of people who can come together over the beauty of making music together,” Drescher wrote to the Record.
Clarke said that Woods had a soft spot for mainstream music, too, noting that Billie Eilish’s WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? was one of his favorite albums. “Everything with him always came back to music… He was like, ‘I love that really serious stuff, but I also love the teen pop type as well,’” Clarke said.
Friends of Woods also recalled his way of connecting with people. When Kevin Molina ’24 first asked Woods to get a meal, he remembered moments of Woods’ kindness, whether bonding over Legos or sitting in comfortable silence. As the two became closer friends, Woods made an active effort to include him in his day, like purposefully visiting Molina’s preferred hangout spot in the Paresky Center.
“I like going to the second floor because I know I’ll see you,” he remembered Woods saying at a meal.
“He really made me feel seen,” Molina said.
In his coursework — which spanned opera, philosophy, mathematics, and sociology — Woods also embraced intellectual challenges, engaging deeply with ideas in Professor of Philosophy Melissa Barry’s “Objectivity in Ethics” course, especially when discussions became “complicated and difficult,” she wrote to the Record.
“He would often show up at my office hours, grappling with a puzzling thought, and light up as we untangled the issues and he saw how he might resolve the apparent contradictions,” she wrote. “He was the kind of student every professor loves to teach — curious, bright, amusing, and kind. I’ll miss him.”
Professor of Music Anthony Sheppard described Woods as a student of “quiet brilliance” whose ardent study of music was sincere and “consistently impressive.” Sheppard recalled a class in which Woods, primarily a cellist, said he was learning the piano arrangement for the prelude to an opera that the class was studying simply because he enjoyed it.
“Somewhat in jest, I invited him to the piano to play, and he got up, sat on at the bench, and proceeded to play this difficult piece from memory,” Sheppard wrote in a statement included in Mandel’s all-campus email, which he also shared with the Record. “The class applauded, and Toby blushed modestly and returned to his seat.”
When Woods auditioned for the Berkshire Symphony, longtime Director Ronald Feldman said he knew “immediately” that Woods would thrive in the orchestra. “He was so excited to play, so full of energy,” he wrote to the Record. “He was very focused on all of the technical and musical details that I work on at every rehearsal. I was very happy to invite him to join the orchestra.”
Woods’ deep sense of dedication also extended to his involvement in Alhambra Consulting Group, which he joined as a strategist when he arrived at the College. In January, Woods earned a runner-up spot at Alhambra’s Third Annual Case Competition.
Partners Dhruv Muppidi ’25, Indira Thodiyil ’25, and Sam Youngwood ’25 interviewed Woods for the group and oversaw his work on a semester-long project last fall. His team was tasked with researching potential new locations for Crust pizzeria’s expansion and producing a one-page report. Woods’ work on the project, they wrote in a joint statement to the Record, was characterized by innovative thinking, a keen sense of detail, and an impressive work ethic. “Toby’s work — single-spaced in size 11 Arial font — spanned three and a half pages, going as far as to analyze specific tax credits and incentives being provided to local businesses,” they wrote.
Kristina and Peter Woods also described Toby’s reverence for the outdoors and love for travel.
“Toby fell in love with hiking during family vacations in Switzerland, when we’d stay high in the mountains and explore all of the winding paths and the magical mountain railways,” they wrote. “He loved the feeling of awe when immersed in this beautiful scenery, and the reward of the view at the top of a challenging hike.”
Daniel Greenberg, assistant professor of physical education and head coach of men’s tennis, also described Woods as intensely enthusiastic in the squash and hiking classes Woods enrolled in. He brought “joy and intelligence” to each class, and arrived to most with a smile and clad in skinny jeans, Greenberg wrote to the Record. “He connected with (and debated) his classmates on everything from meditation to music to consulting to city planning, and when he played squash, he raced around the court with tenacity,” he wrote.
“I know his memory will remain bright for all those who knew him, especially (for me, at least) when the light shines through Hopkins Forest on a warm, fall day,” he added.
Kristina and Peter Woods wrote to the Record that the Toby Woods Memorial Fund, housed at The New Canaan Community Foundation, intends to carry Toby’s memory by supporting causes for which he cared deeply.
“There was so much that Toby would have given to the world over the coming years and decades,” Kristina and Peter Woods wrote. “We can’t hope to replace that, but through his Memorial Fund we are supporting organizations like the regional youth orchestra that he so loved, and college scholarships at the public housing nonprofit where Toby volunteered as an elementary school math tutor.”
Kristina and Peter Woods encouraged those who would like to share memories of Toby to contact them at [email protected]. “We’ve been fortunate to receive dozens of letters and emails from friends, classmates and teachers in our town, so many of which talk about Toby’s generosity of spirit, his kindness, his musicality and intellect, and especially his lovely way of connecting with people and making them feel special,” they wrote. “Toby had a zest for life, and he lived an incredibly full 18 years, bringing so much joy and light to others.”
He is survived by his parents, Kristina and Peter Woods, his older brother, Nick, and his grandmother Elaine Wojcik Lynnworth (Nana).
