Augusta Read Thomas (born in 1964 in New York), was Composer-in-Residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (1997-2006) and, until 2008, Chair of the Board of the American Music Center, on which she has served for the past five years. Starting September 2006, Thomas resigns from her position as the Wyatt Professor of Music at Northwestern University to devote her time exclusively to composition. At the age of 33, she received tenure from the Eastman School. Her work is exclusively published by G. Schirmer Inc. She studied at Northwestern University, Yale University and at the Royal Academy of Music. Seven years after graduating from the Royal Academy of Music, she was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM, honorary degree). In 1998 she received the Distinguished Alumni Association Award from St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire. In 1999, she received the Award of Merit from the President of Northwestern University.
Conductors including Daniel Barenboim, Christoph Eschenbach, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Mstislav Rostropovich, Pierre Boulez, Seiji Ozawa, Hans Vonk, Gerard Schwarz, Hannu Lintu, Oliver Knussen, Marin Alsop, David Robertson, Ludovic Morlot, Leonard Slatkin, Dennis Russell Davies, Sir Andrew Davis, Hugh Wolff, Cliff Colnot, Norman Scribner, John Nelson, Apo Hsu, Jahja Ling, Keith Lockhart, Lawrence Leighton Smith, George Manahan, Jac Van Steen, Gianpiero Taverna, David Gilbert, Bradley Lubman, Grant Llewellyn, David Loebel, Lorin Maazel, Andrey Boreyko, Hannu Lintu, and Odaline de la Martinez have programmed her work.
Upcoming projects include Helios Choros a triptych for orchestra (2006-2007) (title translation: Sun God Dancers) with a duration of 45 minutes:Helios Choros I, commissioned by the Dallas Symphony, was composed in 2006 and is dedicated with admiration and gratitude to Sir Andrew Davis, Victor Marshall, and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and was premiered on May 3,4,5,6, 2007 by the Dallas Symphony, Sir Andrew Davis conducting; Helios Choros II, co-commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra and Boston Symphony Orchestra, composed in 2008, with the LSO premiere in December 2008, Daniel Harding, conducting, and the BSO premiere date TBD; Helios Choros III, commissioned by the Orchestra of Paris, was composed in 2007 and is dedicated with admiration and gratitude to Christoph Eschenbach, and will be premiered on December 12, 2007 in Paris on a concert for which the curator was Pierre Boulez. On January 16, 2009, NEW WORK, a violin concerto co-commissioned by Festival Présences with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the BBC Proms, and Mr. and Mrs. Bill Brown, with Frank-Peter Zimmermann as violin soloist, will premiere in Salle Pleyel, Paris, with Kazuchi Ono conducting. A NEW WORK for orchestra, commissioned by the Juilliard School, will premiere in Fall 2009. SCAT for oboe (or flute), string trio and harpsichord (or piano), co-commissioned for the Walden Chamber Players by 20th Century Unlimited and Eleanor Eisenmenger with additional funding provided by the Argosy Foundation will premiere on November 11, 2007 at the Clark Art Museum in Williamstown, MA, at Smith College, and earlier that day at the state prison, Hampshire County House of Corrections, in North Hampton, MA. The ASCAP FOUNDATION has commissioned a work for cello and piano, IN MEMORIAM MSTISLAV ROSTROPOVICH, which will be premiered and recorded by Matt Haimovitz and is titled CANTOS FOR SLAVA. She is hoping to compose a chamber opera entitled ARIANNA, PRIMA DONNA. A NEW WORK for choir, commissioned by the San Francisco Girl's Chorus for the occasion of their 30th Anniversary, for their Chorissima chamber choir, will premiere in October 2008.
Premieres that took place during the 2005-2006 season included two new concerti for the Chicago Symphony: Astral Canticle for violin, flute and orchestra featuring the principal players Robert Chen and Matthieu DuFour; and Carillon Sky for violin and large ensemble. Other new works are Shakin' for orchestra (a tribute to Elvis Presley and Igor Stravinsky), commissioned by the Memphis Symphony Orchestra and the Music Library Association in honor of its 75th Anniversary; The Rewaking for male chorus commissioned by Cornell University Glee Club; Berkshire Songs for chorus commissioned by the Nebraska Choral Arts Society; and Angel Tears and Earth Prayers for organ and trumpet commissioned by the American Guild of Organists for their national convention. Two new solo piano etudes join the existing four and the full set is first presented by Stephen Gosling in New York City.
Highlights of her international performances this season are feature concerts at Helsinki's Music Nova Festival; and the French premiere of Ceremonial with the Orchestra National of Bordeaux Acquitania, conducted by Hannu Lintu. She also participates in artist residences and festivals at Cornell University, Bowling Green State University, Northwestern University, Smith College, New England Conservatory, and June in Buffalo, among others.
Augusta Read Thomas studied with Jacob Druckman at Yale University, and with Alan Stout and Bill Karlins at Northwestern University.
Recent Premieres
 Augusta Read Thomas, Leonard Bernstein, and George Perle |
Recent past projects include DAYLIGHT DIVINE, for children's chorus and orchestra, commissioned by Soli Deo Gloria and premiered in June 2001 at the St-Denis Festival in France; MURMURS IN THE MIST OF MEMORY, commissioned by the International Sejong Soloists, which premiered in 2001 at the Aspen Music Festival; SONG IN SORROW for orchestra and chorus, commissioned by the Cleveland Orchestra, which had its premiere in June 2000; FUGITIVE STAR for string quartet, commissioned by the Caramoor Chamber Music Festival for the Avalon String Quartet; RING OUT WILD BELLS TO THE WILD SKY (text by Tennyson), for chorus and orchestra, commissioned by the Washington Choral Arts Society, which had its premiere on February 25, 2000, at the Kennedy Center; AURORA: CONCERTO FOR PIANO AND ORCHESTRA, commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, which had its premiere with Daniel Barenboim as pianist and conductor on June 10, 2000; the work received its UK premiere on September 8, 2001 at the BBC Proms, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Daniel Barenboim as pianist and conductor once again; FOR EMILY for chorus, commissioned by the Dale Warland Singers, and premiered on December 4, 1999; INVOCATIONS for string quartet, commissioned by the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival for the Miami String Quartet (with funding from Chamber Music America), which had its premiere on March 19, 2000 in Santa Fe; CEREMONIAL for orchestra, commissioned and premiered by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Daniel Barenboim conducting, on January 6, 2000; RITUAL INCANTATIONS, a cello concerto for cellist David Finckel, commissioned by Thomas van Straaten with the Aspen Music Festival, premiered during its fiftieth anniversary season on July,16 1999, with Hugh Wolf conducting; a ballet entitled PASSIONS, commissioned jointly for the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the James Sewell Dance Company by the Minnesota Commissioning Club, and premiered by them at the Ordway Music Theatre in Minneapolis in September, 1998; ORBITAL BEACONS: CONCERTO FOR ORCHESTRA (for re-seated orchestra - divided into ten sections - 8 concertino groups with 9 soloists and two chamber orchestras), commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, premiered with Pierre Boulez conducting on November 27, 1998; BRASS AXIS for the Rascher Saxophone Quartet and orchestra, commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra, Dennis Russell Davies conducting (premiered at Carnegie Hall on January 11, 1998); CHANSON for cello and orchestra, commissioned by Mstislav Rostropovich and premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa conducting, in April 1997 (at Symphony Hall, Boston and Carnegie Hall, NY); and WORDS OF THE SEA, commissioned and premiered by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Boulez conducting, in December 1996. DAYLIGHT DIVINE, for children's chorus and orchestra, commissioned by Soli Deo Gloria, had its American premiere in 2002 with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra and the American Boychoir.
Additionally, Augusta wrote a work entitled SERENADE for chamber orchestra, commissioned by the Shedd Aquarium for the Seahorse Symphony exhibit, which was recorded on CD by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and which is playing as a tape loop in the Seahorse exhibit for a period of three years.
 Pierre Boulez and Augusta Read Thomas |
Upcoming Premieres
See the News & Performances page for upcoming premieres.
Recorded Works
See the Recordings page for details and sound samples.
Awards and Honors
Augusta Thomas has received prizes and awards from: the Siemens Foundation in Munich, ASCAP, BMI, the National Endowment for the Arts (1994, 1992, 1988), the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters (2001, 1994, 1989), the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Koussevitzky Foundation (1999), the New York Foundation for the Arts (1998), the John W. Hechinger Foundation, the Kate Neal Kinley Foundation, The Debussy Trio Music Foundation and Thomas van Straaten, Columbia University (Bearns Prize), the Naumburg Foundation, the Fromm Foundation (1996, 1992), the Barlow Endowment, Harriett Eckstein, the New York State Council for the Arts, and Chamber Music America; she received a prize in the French International Competition of Henri Dutilleux, The Rudolph Nissim Award from ASCAP, a Finalist Award in the Massachusetts Artists Fellowship Program, and the Indiana State University Orchestral Music Prize. She was awarded the Third Century Award from the Office of Copyrights and Patents in Washington, D.C.
Ms. Thomas was awarded fellowships from the Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College, the Rockefeller Foundation (Bellagio), the International Rotary Foundation, L'Ecole Normal in Fountainbleau, France, Tanglewood Music Center, the Gaudeamus Foundation, the Wellesley Composers Conference, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, the Aspen Music Festival and went twice to June in Buffalo. She was a Junior Fellow in the highly prestigious Society of Fellows at Harvard University between 1991 and 1994. She was elected and initiated as an Honorary Member of Sigma Alpha Iota Music Fraternity in 1996.
In 2007, Ms. Thomas's composition, Astral Canticle, was one of two finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in Music.
Her work has been featured on NPR's "Morning Edition." as well as on Minnesota Public Radio's "The Composer's Voice." She was a Master Artist, leading a 3-week composition program, at the Atlantic Center for the Arts. She was twice a featured artist in a one-week program at the Conductor's Institute. Frequently, she undertakes short term residencies at colleges and universities across the country.
Performances of Note
 Augusta Read Thomas at the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Photo by Stephen Belth |
Thomas' orchestral works have been performed by the Berlin Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Boston Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the National Symphony, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Residentie Orkest of The Hague, the Dallas Symphony, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony, the Seattle Symphony, the Louisville Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony, ORF-Vienna (Austrian Radio Orchestra), Bochumer Symphoniker, the Fort Worth Symphony, the New York Chamber Symphony, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, the Washington Choral Arts Society, Soli Deo Gloria, the American Composers Orchestra, the Virtuosi Players, the Marin Symphony, the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, the Berkshire Symphony, the Eastman Philharmonia, the Moscow Conservatory Orchestra, the Syracuse Youth Orchestra, the Columbus (Georgia) Symphony, the San Francisco Women's Philharmonic, Boston Civic Orchestra, the Long Beach Symphony, the New York Youth Symphony, the Concord Symphony, the Memphis Symphony, Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphony Orchestras, Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra (with Gerardo Ribeiro, soloist,), Chamber Orchestra of the South Bay, and the Virtuosi Orchestra.
Chamber music works have been performed by the Aspen Music Festival, the Tanglewood Music Festival, Chanticleer, Caramoor Music Festival, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Eroica Trio, the Stony Brook Contemporary Music Ensemble, the San Francisco Contemporary Chamber Players, the Network for New Music, the Contemporary Chamber Players at the University of Illinois, the Indiana State University Contemporary Ensemble, the Green Umbrella Series, the Syracuse Society for New Music, the Fischer Duo, Heinrich Schiff, Catherine Tait, the Kapell Trio, the Debussy Trio, The Wellesley Composers Conference at the Miller Theater in NY, Trio West, The Lydian String Quartet, Eastman Brass, Jamal Rossi, Laurel Ann Maurer, the Lions Gate Trio, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, John Marcellus, Scott Kluksdahl, Judy Siebert, Laura Frautschi, Bonita Boyd, Nicholas Goluses, the Core Ensemble, the Mendelssohn String Quartet, as well as individual soloists and various university ensembles.
What the Press is Saying about Augusta Read Thomas
"So many artistic ideas percolate in Augusta Read Thomas's brain that the listener almost needs to take a series of big breaths to absorb them all. Fortunately, this new disc of chamber works demonstrates that the American composer's music is striking in concept, texture and timbre. No danger, in other words, of anyone being tempted to stop listening. Thomas's brainy brand of modernism may not be for every taste but her music reveals a lively, probing mind allied to a beating heart.
"Poetry often inspires this composer, as the four RUMI SETTINGS for violin and cello vividly reflect. The instruments evoke the emotions and images in the 800-year-old texts. There conversations are harrowing and tender, pensive and fierce. SIX PIANO ETUDES, presented in pairs throughout the disk, are piquant and mysterious explorations of rhythm, motion and keyboard colors. Thomas achieves a kaleidoscope of shapes and shading with clusters, terraced dynamics and myriad other devices.
"There is nothing austerely contemporary about INCANTATIONS, a piece for solo violin that ventures through wistful and desolate territory, or another work for the instrument, PULSAR, which makes the most of compact materials. Two cello works also speak in animated, expressive voice: the solo BELLS RING SUMMER, a tone-poem of poignant gestures, repeated notes, and dramatic extremes; and CHANT, in which the cello teams with the piano in a series of ruminative and pungent dialogues.
"In orchestral works, operas and here in two intimate pieces, Thomas shows a keen ability to employ texts in passionate, unyielding settings. The brief BUBBLE: RAINBOW - SPIRIT LEVEL is an apt 95th birthday present for Elliott Carter. The disc's eponymous work, PRAIRIE SKETCHES, places a solo soprano in shimmering relationships with a small instrumental ensemble and two sopranos who occasionally echo or compliment the soloist's lines.
"The members of the Callisto Ensemble and colleagues advocate strongly for Thomas's uncompromising art. The performances are models of cohesion, character and detail."
"If the Boulez works by extension, Thomas' "songs of love and passion" work by accretion — layering a colorful, often sensuous array of sonorities from 18 strings, winds and percussion under the ecstatic leaps and lamenting descents of her lyrical, expressionistic vocal lines. Thomas' texts jump across the centuries, forming a poetic patchwork."
 Augusta Read Thomas, Mstislav Rostropovich, and the cast of Ligeia at the work's premiere in Evian, France, in July 1994
Photo © by A.R.T. Musings Publishing Co. |
"And today there is a new cohort of composers who share with their modernist predecessors a particular seriousness and passion, an utter lack of irony and, above all, a belief that profound music requires an active mind to be properly heard, not just a passive set of ears. Augusta Read Thomas, the 37-year-old composer-in-residence at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, chooses elusive titles, suggestive of obscure rites and private cosmologies: ORBITAL BEACONS, RING OUT WILD BELLS, CEREMONIAL and ECLIPSE MUSINGS. Thomas writes music that is inflamed but not obvious. Her vinelike ideas grow and propagate, hiding the framework underneath. In her 1999 cello concerto for David Finckel, RITUAL INCANTATION, the cello begins like a preacher, eliciting murmurs of agreement from a small group of instruments clustered at the front of the stage. The harmonies bristle and the message is indistinct, but the scene has an unmistakable air of theatricality and impassioned grandeur. Gradually, the rest of the orchestra is drawn in by the cello's rhetoric, until it becomes a vast resonating chamber, echoing, amplifying, colorizing and embroidering what the soloist has uttered.
"Other instruments, too, develop solo flights, and the texture becomes more and more rococo, full of trumpet calls, bass excursions and triangle tremolos. But the music always resolves back to the focal cello. However distended the melody, however perplexing the chords, this is ultimately an old-fangled piece — even Brahms might have nodded at the balance of sounds, the heroic eloquence, the measured unfolding of a narrative and the symphonic sense of gravitas.
"And yet Thomas might bridle at such an antique reference. "Modernism to me is about always looking forward, seeking the new, treasuring the unexpected, loving the abstract," she says. "It has to do with things that are in transition, things that are fugitive. I'm trying to pursue some unknown future. That's why modernism has to have hope. If you're going to build something brand new, you have to have some hope that it's out there — or that anyone cares.""
"It seems that with every new Thomas piece one has occasion to remark that this is a gifted young composer who will be heard from. It happens again."
"Thomas' music, particularly her orchestral music, fairly explodes with an extroverted boldness of utterance audiences and musicians alike find challenging yet immediate. It's music that doesn't sound like anybody else's — music that insists you pay attention."
"Thomas has more experience with orchestra than others and it shows in an unmistakable air of knowing what she wants to say and how to say it. Balances work, blends succeed. There is a powerful lyrical instinct at work, resulting in some well sustained melodic lines."
"This young composer...already has amassed many honors, commissions and hearings by major orchestras. It is not difficult to understand why. Her music.. is evocative and shows a well-developed feeling for, and a mastery of, orchestral colors."
"Ms. Thomas has vivid ear for instrumental color."
"Thomas' piece [GLASS MOON]...was about 11 minutes of boldly considered music that celebrated the sound of the instruments and seemed to reaffirm the vitality of orchestral music in general."
"...Thomas has created in [Ligeia] an original and powerful work — intense yet aglow with lovely lyric undercurrents."
Photos for Press and Promotional Reproduction
Click on the desired photo below for a high resolution copy to download. Please credit photographs as follows: "Photo © by Dan Rest"
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