The East Coast Music Association (ECMA) recently unveiled the ten 2023 Honourary East Coast Music Award recipients and Richard Wood will receive the Stompin’ Tom Award for Prince Edward Island on May 7 during the 2023 East Coast Music Awards in Halifax which run May 3–7. 

Named by MacLean’s Magazine as one of the Top 100 Canadians to watch in the 21st Century, Richard Wood has been a proud East Coast Canadian ambassador for over 30 years. Having played for Prime Ministers, Governors General, the Queen, Princes, Princesses, the Emperor of Japan and for Canada’s Armed Forces in the North Pole, Bosnia, and twice in Afghanistan, Wood has been playing to sold-out audiences around the globe with his fiery-brand of Celtic music. 

Wood has taught at over twenty fiddle camps across North America and the United Kingdom and continues to help keep tradition alive by establishing a fiddle scholarship for students. The scholarship provides a full year of fiddle lessons and is awarded annually to a fiddle student at the College of Piping in Summerside, PEI. 

Last year, Wood and his wife, Faye, were presented a Cultural Activity Award by the City of Summerside for their production of Richard WOOD: Through the Years, a live concert highlighting his 30 year career. Wood continues to evolve an innovative approach to traditional Celtic jigs, reels and strathspeys, tempering the mix with sweet airs and lively polkas.