Cy Wood's Bio

Cy is a creative artist and coach based in sunny Palm Springs, California. Before making the move west, he served as Executive Director of the Young Professionals Choral Collective in Cincinnati, Ohio and spent seven years teaching music and theatre at Butler Tech School of the Arts.

Prior to his career in education, Cy worked nearly a decade in New York City as an actor, producer, and creative director, contributing to Broadway, Off-Broadway, national tours, and special events, including Kinky Boots, Pippin, Evita, RENT, and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee Reunion. As a performer, he appeared in productions worldwide with Broadway and Disney productions— from Annie and Oklahoma to Cats and Big Band Beat.

Cy holds a BFA in Music, Dance, and Theatre from Brigham Young University with an emphasis in Music Education. When he’s not creating, he enjoys life in the desert with his husband, Dustin, and their two cats Cleo and Teddi.

Barbershop

Cy is a highly sought-after coach, choreographer, educator, director, and producer for barbershop ensembles across the globe. Additionally, he is a judge in the Performance Category for the Barbershop Harmony Society. He also sings with the Westminster Chorus in California.

Cy grew up as a third-generation barbershopper. He and his three brothers love to sing the old songs whenever they are together. His mother sang barbershop with her sisters, as did her father with his brothers. Growing up, the family's car trips were filled with the whole family harmonizing down the roads of Idaho. The in-laws of the Wood family know that they must sing the melody of Happy Birthday, lest the melody be M.I.A.

Cy finally joined the Idaho Gateway Chorus when he was 15 years old. The barbershop bug had bitten him hard. On any given day, the locals of Pocatello, Idaho could hear Cy belting along with his favorite recordings of Suntones, Bluegrass Student Union, Keepsake, or The Gas House Gang while he zipped down the road in his newly painted '78 VW Beatle. He was even pulled over for speeding once, because while he was posting along with Tony De Rosa, he didn't realize that his foot was slamming on the gas!

While studying in college, Cy was asked to be in High Flight, a competitive collegiate quartet. Though they were together only a few months, they won the Rocky Mountain District collegiate contest, and later went on to place 12th at the 2006 International Competition. Cy sung baritone. 

He joined NYC's acclaimed chorus Voices of Gotham in 2012 and was quickly asked to be the baritone section leader as well as a board member at large. In 2013, Cy was asked to be VoG's Choreographer and Presentation Leader. He has had his work performed on the international stage as well as many stages in North America including Carnegie Hall. Since moving to Ohio, Cy has performed with a BHS Top Ten Chorus, Southern Gateway Chorus where he also served on the music team and was the Performance Director.

In addition to his active coaching and chorus lifestyle, Cy was the baritone of On Tap. This quartet won the Mid-Atlantic District Northern Division Contest in 2014 and 7th place at the MAD District competition. On Tap entertained their audiences until their disbandment in 2015 due to two of the members moving away from NYC. 

He also sang bass in his first mixed quartet, Half and Half which was the first mixed gendered quartet to ever compete in the Barbershop Harmony Society’s international competition. Half and Half placed 14th in the world in 2022. Half and Half recorded an album entitled Let’s Be Bad which is available anywhere music can be streamed. The quartet disbanded in 2023.

Cy most recently sang baritone in MixTape, a BHS quartet based in Ohio. The quartet were the 2023 champions for the Johnny Appleseed district, which encompasses all of Ohio and parts of Pennsylvania, and were honored to represent the district two times at the international competitions. The quartet disbanded in 2025.

Musical Theatre

There isn’t a time that Cy hasn’t been obsessed with Musical Theatre. Some of his earliest memories are listening to soundtracks of Broadway shows and singing along with every word. When his siblings were in a production in their schools, he would attend rehearsals and be able to recreate the choreography on his own at home. Musical theatre was (and is) his happy place.

Nothing would stop him from being on stage: When he was just in the third grade, he was in a children’s show of Hansel and Gretel. But he came down with an awful case of pneumonia just before the performances. His mother took him to go get a shot in his backside and he still insisted on performing, limping the whole time. Whatever it took, he was always determined to be involved in some sort of production. He even left high school a few months early because he was cast in his first professional show— an opportunity that he was not going to miss!

While attending Brigham Young University, Cy auditioned for and was selected to be a Dapper Dan at Disneyland in California. Unfortunately, the rehearsal schedule conflicted with another production that he had just accepted, and he had to regrettably decline that offer. That opportunity, however, led to him landing his first job working for Tokyo Disney Resort! He took some time from his studies to be able to work in Japan and meet and work with so many wonderful artists from around the world!

After returning from Japan, and finishing school, Cy immediately moved to New York City. He had two suitcases, no place to live, and no job to pay the bills, but Cy was determined to see his performing dreams come to reality. Within a few weeks, he was offered his first job on the Broadway National Tour of Annie. From there, Cy was lucky to be cast in several regional and Broadway shows, all while making art, memories and friends along the way.

Later, Cy worked for a Broadway producer and was involved with eight different Broadway shows and tours, two of which won the Tony awards for Best Musical and Best Revival of a Musical. (Kinky Boots and Pippin, respectively.) Cy also was a member of the Actor’s Fund (Now renamed Entertainment Community Fund) Special Event’s team, which provides services for anyone in the arts industry.