Recordings

 

Augusta Read Thomas: Terpsichore's Box of Dreams

Release Date: April 5, 2024
Label: Nimbus Alliance NI6445

“Previous instalments in this long-running Nimbus Alliance survey of Augusta Read Thomas's oeuvre have ranged far and wide within a catalogue that spans some 30 years to date. In contrast, we here explore a variety of works of more immediately recent vintage (the earliest work here dates from 2018), and between them fill out a vividly coloured snapshot of Thomas' irrepressible compositional persona as it stands at present. Many of her long-standing preoccupations are to be found in this collection: the love of dance which propels the music into a tirelessly evolving voyage in both rhythmic and narrative terms; the iridescent, bell- saturated sonic environment that fills her musical landscapes with light and clarity; the sense of jazz auras acting as guiding spirits propelling the music on its course with its restless, hocketing rhythms and penetrating harmonic flavours; a celebration and understanding of instrumental virtuosity; the overall sense of her music engaged in a deep-seated interaction between the present and the past.” © Paul Pellay

 

BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Vimbayi Kaziboni

Augusta Read Thomas: Dance Foldings for orchestra

Release Date: July 7, 2023
Label: Nimbus Alliance NI1579

In celebration of the diversity and the mission statement of the Royal Albert Hall on the occasion of the venue’s 150th anniversary, the BBC Radio 3 commissioned Dance Foldings for orchestra for which the commission prompt was to reflect in any way the arts and sciences as they are now. The natural world, as explored by scientists, engineers, and physicians in their laboratories and clinics, offers a wealth of opportunities to explore resonance and balance through sound. Few orchestral works attempt to capture the kinetic and emotional content of scientific topics and convey these concepts through abstract, rather than descriptive, music. The musical materials of Dance Foldings for orchestra take as their starting point the metaphors, pairings, counterpoints, foldings, forms, and images inspired by the biological "ballet" of proteins being assembled and folded in our bodies.

 

This album was nominated by the jury of the International Classical Music Awards for the Award 2024 in the Contemporary category.

Clarissa Bevilacqua plays Augusta Read Thomas

Augusta Read Thomas: Complete Works for Solo Violin

Release Date: January 6, 2023
Label: Nimbus Alliance NI8109

Nimbus is delighted to release a stunning debut album of violinist Clarissa Bevilacqua performing a complete collection of mainstay composer Augusta Read Thomas’s works for solo violin, as well as the world premier recording of the revised and final version of her Violin Concerto No. 3 “Juggler in Paradise” in conjunction with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Vimayi Kaziboni. Each and every piece has a different character and tells its own story, and these seemingly unrelated, abstract pieces of a puzzle come together during the course of the album to create a dream-like journey.

Listen to excerpts

Teaser Trailer

 
 

“For violinist Clarissa Bevilacqua, the first-prize winner of the 14th International Mozart Competition, it would’ve been easy to cash in on yet another recording of the Violin Concerto No. 5, K. 219, which she performed at the competition. Instead, her debut album Dream Catcher — out today on Nimbus Records — focuses exclusively on Augusta Read Thomas’ complete works for solo violin, plus a new recording of the celebrated composer’s Violin Concerto No. 3, Juggler in Paradise.

When Bevilacqua won the Mozart competition, in 2020, she already had Thomas’ Capricious Toccata: Dandelion Sky in her repertoire, a playful five-minute piece that opens in spurts and wends its way up and down with a bouncy staccato touch. Bevilacqua and Thomas met by chance at a pre-pandemic Chicago recital that included the piece; it was “the first time that I had the opportunity to discuss a piece of music with the actual composer,” writes the 21-year-old soloist in her album notes. She soon delved into more of Thomas’ violin music and embarked on the recording project.

Bevilacqua’s performances in Dream Catcher reveal mature musicianship and an intimate knowledge of the program — a notable slice of contemporary classical music from the U.S. With a warm tone in the low register, her fluent shifting in dynamics adds emotional resonance, and her approach to phrasing flows engagingly between Thomas’ moodiness and sunnier temperaments.

And that’s tough to pull off, for despite Thomas’ distinctive flair for unaccompanied violin — spanning 21 years from the plaintive sighs and whispers of Incantation (1995) to the solemn, dark-hued meditation of Rainbow Bridge to Paradise (2016) — there is a similar compositional approach to many of the works that lingers after repeated listens. Her material frequently develops organically from compact cells with a recurring uneven rhythm, undergirding the way she strings melodies together within a tonal framework. Stresses at the end of the melodic phrases create a slight lilt, which Bevilacqua accomplishes, adding a shimmer to the gliding motion of the music.

A highlight from the solo pieces, Rainbow Bridge is punctuated by double stops and smooth crescendos; the violin line moves along patiently, luxuriating in the gravitas of Thomas’ sober melodies, originally written for cello. Bevilacqua adds dynamic control and tonal variety, culminating in piercing shards of light in the high-register harmonics at the end.

The 18-minute concerto in six continuous sections…is a logical outgrowth from Thomas’ first two essays for violin and orchestra, though the older pieces — from 1997 and 2005 — call for much smaller ensembles.

In Bevilacqua’s reading of Juggler in Paradise, she achieves a comforting introspection in the most intimate sections, especially in contrast with Thomas’ orchestral musings and ensemble interplay, which includes brash and nervy statements that erupt in cycles. At times the orchestra creates a misty underbrush; at other times it imitates the constant rolling and swelling of the soloist.

Leading the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conductor Vimbayi Kaziboni executes Thomas’ pointillistic orchestration with precision, handling its shifty sneakiness skillfully. …Toward the end, her lambent tone counterbalances a subdued, receding brass line, as the concerto peters out weightlessly with ringing percussion.

“The vast majority of albums out there cater to a very specific, restricted niche of composers and their most well-known works,” writes Bevilacqua in the notes, which speaks to the industry’s obsessive programming of canonic Eurocentric repertoire, often at the expense of living artists. You could look on Dream Catcher as a small response to that from a big-thinking young artist whose debut album — “my reply to all those people who believe classical music is a thing of the past” — makes no concessions, refreshingly.”— Esteban Meneses, I CARE IF YOU LISTEN

“Nimbus is delighted to release a stunning debut album of violinist Clarissa Bevilacqua performing a complete collection of mainstay composer Augusta Read Thomas’s works for solo violin, as well as the world premier recording of her Violin Concerto No. 3 ‘Juggler in Paradise’ in conjunction with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Vimayi Kaziboni. Each and every piece has a different character and tells its own story, and these seemingly unrelated, abstract pieces of a puzzle come together during the course of the album to create a dream-like journey. Violinist Clarissa Bevilacqua is known to enchant audiences with her dazzling technical skills and deeply inspiring musicality. Music director and conductor Terry Lowry says she possesses that ‘rare star quality that is difficult to describe, but impossible to miss.’”— From Press Relsease

“Augusta Read Thomas likes performances of her music which convey the sense of a ‘captured improvisation’, and that’s as neat a way as any of summing up Clarissa Bevilacqua’s playing in this sequence of short solo pieces.....the writing itself stimulates Bevilacqua to dig deep into her reserves of expression for the searing confidence of Pulsar, the statuesque beauties of Venus Enchanted and finally the luminously elevated play between violinist and large, percussion-heavy orchestra in the six brief movements of the ‘Juggler in Paradise’ Concerto.”— Peter Quantrill, The Strad Magazine (This was also one of the Magazine’s Recommended Albums)

“This premiere recording of the 2008 work ‘Juggler in Paradise’ – Thomas’s Third Violin Concerto – the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Vimbayi Kaziboni, makes a strong case for further performances. Bevilacqua balances the jerky playfulness of the early movements with the subtlety and space demanded in the final dream-like sequence.”— Claire Jackson, Classical Music by BBC Magazine

“Although Augusta Read Thomas’ musical language is characterized by a communicative and expressive style, her compositions still pose several technical difficulties to the interpreter. Clarissa Bevilacqua resolves these virtuosic passages with incredible ease, and manages to maintain an air of spontaneity while still concentrating on the poetic lines of the composer. The young violinist’s interpretation of the Violin Concert n. 3 is elegant and sensitive, and she finds an excellent counterpart with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales…”— Giuseppe Rossi, Musica Magazine

“The entire power of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales comes to the fore. The violinist, Clarissa Bevilacqua, conquers an impressive repertoire that calls on all aspects of technique for a contemporary violinist.”— Maureen Buja, Interlude (March 16, 2023)

 

Augusta Read Thomas: Bell Illuminations

Release Date: April 1, 2022
Label: Nimbus Records NI6427

For composers beyond counting, the sound of bells has been a source of magnetic fascination since time immemorial (figures as disparate as Rachmaninoff and Jonathan Harvey immediately come to mind), but few have hardwired it in their creative psyche as deeply as Augusta Read Thomas. Previous releases in this series have already included a number of such works (Carillon Sky, Resounding Earth, Bells Ring Summer, Ripple Effects), but the present volume is the first one to concentrate upon this long-standing preoccupation. Each of the three major works gathered here is prefaced by a short miniature.

The bells toll for thee: New music by Augusta Read Thomas

This CD is an imaginative collection of music and all the more powerful that it captures so many sides of what might otherwise be called a simple bell-like tone.

“Crescat Scientia; Vita Excolatur”: Thomas has created a spirited work that immediately charmed me. There are treble bells offering a kind of insistent greeting that gather you in and then a celebration commences. This work has all the joy and excitement of a simple, happy afternoon drenched in sun and surrounded by family. It is a wonderful contribution to the music of the elusive carillon repertoire.

“Ring Out Wild Bells to the Sky” for solo soprano, chorus, and orchestra is given a splendid performance by the Choral Arts Society of Washington, conducted by Norman Scribner with Carmen Pelton as soprano soloist. Bell sounds from the orchestra as well as long, bell-like notes from the chorus join together beautifully. It has the power of a fanfare, the charm of a joyous choir, and the zing of a work that gathers large orchestra forces for a focused musical purpose.

“Sonorous Earth” is scored for “bells from around the world and orchestra. Thomas engages in various sounds created by metal and merges them marvelously into orchestral sounds that have been standard for centuries. It is music that melds traditional technique with new sounds and ideas.

“Enchanted Invocation”: Percussionist John Corkill creates a mysterious mood on the vibraphone. The music is very slow and yet has a pull to it. There are long notes that seem to hum for an unusually long time, adding to the enchanting effect.

“Bebop Riddle” for solo marimba has engaging rhythms and Corkill is superb at letting the instrument whisper as well as shout. The music has jazzy antecedents.

“Upon Wings of Words” for soprano and string quartet takes for its inspiration poetry by Emily Dickinson is an uplifting work that offers sly musical treatment of intriguing text. Bachrach sings with a luminous quality suited to Dickinson’s taut text, and the strings are particularly powerful in their popping staccato moments as well as long, lithe lines that cushion the voice. — M.L. Rantala, Classical Music Critic, Hyde Park Herald, April 19, 2022

Augusta Read Thomas’ New Release Captures the Breadth of Her Musical Palette with a Regular Dose of Sunshine

Bell Illuminations has a wide variety of ensemble configurations and illustrates the breadth of her compositional reach. Tying it all together is Thomas’ overall sunny disposition. It’s very easy for composers to use atonal settings to scream at creation. Thomas’ music, mixing tonality and atonality, is hopeful and inspiring.

Bell Illuminations opens with Crescat Scienta; Vita Excolatur, a work for a 72-bell carillon played by 4 players’ eight hands and two feet. This works well with Thomas’ aural instincts, and she has written several pieces for carillon.

Composed for Third Coast Percussion, Sonorous Earth uses 300 bells collected from around the world. Ring Out the Wild Bells to the Wild Sky, which sets the words from Alfred, Lord Tennyson’ in music for soprano, chorus, and orchestra. [These] hopeful passages are typical of Thomas’ music. It’s very nice to hear in these challenging times. — Louis Harris, Third Coast Review, May 16, 2022

This disc explores Read Thomas’s long-time obsession with bells

“The first piece, Crescat Scientia: Vita Excolatur, put me in mind of Jonathan Harvey – the title is surely a nod to his Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco – but where he explores bells through electronic manipulation, Read Thomas uses only live sounds, a carillon of 72 bells building, through gradual accumulation, to a 72-note chord. It’s a striking opening to the album – but hearing bells on record can never quite match having the vibrations go right through you in the flesh.”

Upon Wings of Words is a setting of Emily Dickinson for soprano and string quartet. Dickinson continues to inspire composers over 130 years since her death, and here it is the tense, springy rhythms of her poems that Read Thomas responds to. Soprano Kristina Bachrach negotiates the gymnastic lines of the outer movements with technical assurance, and blends effacingly into the ensemble in the slow central panel.”

“…Sonorous Earth, for bells and orchestra. Here the orchestral writing is colourful and subtle, the bells like a glittering decoration on top of the musical cake, …and the four players of Third Coast Percussion make a persuasive case for this unlikely kind-of-concerto.” — Bernard Hughes, The Arts Desk, London, November 5, 2022

 

Augusta Read Thomas: The Auditions

Release Date: May 1, 2020
Label: Nimbus Records NI6402

Volume 8 in this series documenting Augusta Read Thomas' music, three major scores dominate, with 4 shorter works filling out this 80-minute sonic portrait of an inexhaustibly inventive and individual composer. The brass quintet Avian Capriccio is typically free-wheeling in its evocation of 3 contrasting types of birds, hummingbirds, swans and canaries. Scored for wordless soprano and string quartet, Plea for Peace acts as a single, seamless block beginning in near-immobility, with the voice animating the instruments as the music embarks on its slow, implacable progress. Even in a catalogue as multifarious as Thomas', the carillon piece Ripple Effects stands out as a one-off. Commissioned by Rockefeller Chapel, Chicago and devised in a number of versions, sculpted for carillons of three sizes, requiring varying numbers of players. The ballet score The Auditions was written for the Martha Graham Dance Company, and with it, Thomas joins a distinguished company of composers who wrote scores for this seminal figure in modern dance. It is structured in 7 sections, with the auditions of the title being the even-numbered, action-packed sections, and the odd-numbered ones acting as slower, more otherworldly frames. That Two Thoughts About The Piano's title should be identical to a work by Elliott Carter is no accident, as Thomas' work is a response to the older composer's piece without actually quoting or even emulating Carter's music. We've already encountered Selene in a previous volume of this ongoing survey of Thomas' music, but it appears here in a wholly new dress. The original was for string and percussion quartets, but here the strings are replaced by a woodwind nonet in an arrangement by Cliff Colnot, thus preserving the original's harmonic richness. Bringing this collection to a close, Your Kiss sets a love poem by e.e. cummings for soprano and piano.

“Timbral scintillation, long a facet of Thomas’s armoury, comes to the fore in The Auditions, a ballet in which the rhythmic vitality of its even-numbered movements is thrown into relief by the shimmering aura of the other four, as if placing human activity at an ethereal remove. As usual in this series, performances leave nothing to chance. Fortunate is the composer who has such committed exponents; but then, fortunate the artists who have music so idiomatically conceived and impressively realised. With consistently fine sound and detailed notes by Paul Pellay.”— Richard Whitehouse, Gramophone

“This is witty, inventive and colourful music. It’s fabulous, and unlike anything I’ve heard all year.”— Graham Rickson, TheArtsDesk

“Very well recorded and superbly performed, this is a very fine programme indeed of one of today’s leading composers. Augusta Read Thomas’ work rewards easily as much as it challenges, and is very much deserving of the attention it receives.”

“To my ears [The Auditions] has a ritualistic feel which gives its progression a quality of inevitability, by which I don’t mean predictability. Thomas’ precision in instrumentation and skilfully subtle use of a variety of percussion delivers a plethora of colour and transparency, and the whole thing is strikingly stimulating. It has a Stravinsky-like edge, but rarely sounds like Stravinsky.”— Dominy Clements, MusicWeb International

“Augusta Read Thomas has an exceptional ear for timbral detail.”
“Tremendously compelling, full of rhythmic sparkle.”
“A mystical concept.”
“Sterling performance, by the ICE Ensemble.”
“A brilliant sense of interplay between the intriguing selection of instruments.”
— Jessica Duchen, BBC Music Magazine

 

Augusta Read Thomas: Plea for Peace

Release Date: December 2, 2017
Label: Nimbus Records NI1563

A vocalise for soprano and string quartet commissioned by the University of Chicago for Nuclear Reactions - 1942: A Historic Breakthrough, an Uncertain Future, in commemoration of the 75th anniversary of Chicago Pile-1.

 

Augusta Read Thomas - Ritual Incantations

Release Date: November 3, 2017
Label: Nimbus Alliance NI 6355

The present collection of Augusta Read Thomas's works spans 18 years, from 1999 to 2017. It juxtaposes the two sides of Thomas that we've already encountered in previous volumes, the large-scale thinker in the cello concerto Ritual Incantations, the piano trio Klee Musings and the recent string quartet Chi, and the miniaturist in the six other works which on this disc act as satellites to the above-mentioned three larger works. Two sides that, paradoxically, seem to share more similarities than differences. Common to all the works collected here are the sunny, free-wheeling lyricism, luminosity, sense of colour, spontaneity, caprice, playfulness and spirituality which have long been ineradicable characteristics of her nuanced music, all tied up with an irrepressible energy and a sense of irreducible concision no matter how expansive the time frame, of taking all the time in the world to say everything that needs to be said in any given piece, but not a second more than that!

Chi is based on the Chinese concept of life force. There was plenty of life force running through this concise work, which engaged. Spektral played it with obvious affection, and Chi said a lot in less than 15 minutes. I’d welcome the chance to hear it again, as well as more from Thomas.”— Mr. Leslie Gerber, The Boston Musical Intelligencer

“Thomas has produced a body of work that speaks to our hearts as well as our minds, and that constantly surprises and delights in its range, its beauty, and its magic.”— Jeremy Glazier, La Tempestad

“…the breadth of output here shows what I have been missing. This disc makes an excellent introduction to the music of Augusta Read Thomas, as it not only introduces the listener to the different aspects of her compositional style for different sized ensembles, but it also presents the works so well too, with each work being given a first-rate performance. The recorded sound is very good as are the booklet notes, if you haven’t heard her music this is a fine place to start, or to add to your collection of the music of this vibrant and engaging composer.”— Stuart Sillitoe, MusicWeb International

 

Augusta Read Thomas - Of Being Is A Bird

Release Date: April 1, 2016
Label: Nimbus Alliance NI 6323

The new Nimbus Records release, Augusta Read Thomas - OF BEING IS A BIRD (Nimbus Alliance NI 6323), is the sixth in a series presenting the music of the eminent American composer Augusta Read Thomas, and contains the following performances of recent compositions:

  • HELIX SPIRALS for string quartet (2014) - Parker Quartet
  • SELENE (MOON CHARIOT RITUALS) octet for percussion quartet and string quartet (2014) - Third Coast Percussion and Spektral Quartet
  • CAPRICIOUS TOCCATA for solo violin (2015) - Nathan Giem, violin
  • OF BEING IS A BIRD (EMILY DICKINSON SETTINGS) for solo soprano & ensemble (2015) - Claire Booth, soprano, the Aurora Orchestra, Nicholas Collon, conducting
  • CAPRICE for solo violin (2005) and RUSH for solo violin (2004) - Nathan Cole, violin
  • LOVE TWITTERS IRVING BERLIN’S "they say it is wonderful" arrangement made by Augusta Read Thomas (2006) - Nicola Melville, piano

Helix Spirals combines explosive energy, technical virtuosity, and vivid colors and textures with an intellectual rigor of conception that lends it formal continuity and cohesion. This exciting work deserves a place in the repertoire.”— Matthew Heck, The Boston Musical Intelligencer

 

Augusta Read Thomas - Selected Works for Orchestra

Release Date: October 14, 2014
Label: Nimbus Alliance NI 6258

The new Nimbus Records release, Augusta Read Thomas - Selected Works for Orchestra (Nimbus Alliance NI 6258), is the first in a series presenting the music of the eminent American composer Augusta Read Thomas, and contains the following performances:

  • Aureole for orchestra - DePaul University Symphony, Cliff Colnot conducting
  • Words of the Sea for orchestra - Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Boulez conducting
  • In My Sky at Twilight for soprano and ensemble - Chicago Symphony Orchestra MusicNOW Ensemble with soprano Christine Brandes, Pierre Boulez conducting
  • Carillon Sky for solo violin and chamber ensemble - Chicago Symphony Orchestra MusicNOW Ensemble with violinist Baird Dodge, Oliver Knussen conducting
  • Terpsichore's Dream for chamber orchestra - ART Chamber Orchestra, Cliff Colnot conducting
  • Silver Chants the Litanies for French horn and 18 players - Southern Methodist University Wind Ensemble with Greg Heustis on horn, Jack Delaney conducting

Nimbus plans two more CD releases of works by Augusta Read Thomas, with the next arriving in spring of 2014.

Listen to excerpts
Reviews & features

The Guardian (February 5, 2014)
MusicWeb International (February 20, 2014)

This recording was nominated as a finalist in the Contemporary category of the Gramophone Classical Music Awards 2014.

"Scintillating and evocative...a luminous apotheosis...one can only await volume 2 of this series with impatience."— Richard Whitehouse, Gramophone Magazine, March 2014" (The CD is also the Editor's Choice disk for the April 2014 issue of the magazine.)

"Step forward a comparatively young composer writing today in a dissonant and provocative way. Augusta Read Thomas...has not been short of A-List proponents. Aureole for orchestra is...wrapped in provocative rhythms and colours. It's all very lucidly orchestrated. Words of the Sea for orchestra lets us hear a live concert performance... This is virtuoso stuff. Carillon Sky for solo violin and chamber ensemble revels once again in a luxuriant web of dissonance and caprice. It's highly virtuoso writing redolent of Szymanowski and Dutilleux. Terpsichore's Dream is for chamber orchestra, with more pattering percussion and silvery chiming filigree. Gritty dissonance carries the day but it's always cleanly scored."— Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International, 20 February 2014

 

A Portrait of Augusta Read Thomas

Release Date: October 14, 2014
Label: Nimbus Records NI6262

A Portrait of Augusta Read Thomas is the latest release of works by Thomas from Nimbus Alliance and Wyastone.

"Bold, passionate, urgent — Augusta Read Thomas writes music that is wholly and completely alive...The first two volumes of this Augusta Read Thomas recording series focused on orchestral and chamber/piano music respectively, collecting performances by various ensembles. This third volume is something a bit different: a recording of a live 50th birthday concert presented by the New Haven (Connecticut) Symphony."

The collection includes live performances of Two E.E. Cummings Songs (with The Elm City Girls' Choir); the World Premiere recording of Hemke Concerto "Prisms of Light" (with Frederick Hemke, saxophone); Prayer and Celebration; Absolute Ocean (with Tony Arnold, soprano, and Jenniery Hoult, harp); Silent Moon (with Katie Hyun, violin, and Mihai Marica, cello); Of Paradise and Light; and Spells (with The New York Virtuoso Singers). William Boughton conducts the New Haven Symphony Orchestra.

Listen to excerpts
 

Augusta Read Thomas - Music for Strings

Release Date: July 10, 2015
Label: Nimbus Alliance NI6263

The first two volumes of this Augusta Read Thomas recording series focused on orchestral and chamber / piano music respectively, and the third volume was a recording of a live 50th birthday concert presented by the New Haven Symphony. This fourth volume has yet a different focus: music primarily featuring strings and almost exclusively performed by young musicians. Thomas wrote: "If one were to shut one's eyes while listening to this CD, one should imagine a stage full of passionate young musicians. Two of these performances are even taken from live, unedited concert recordings (Juilliard and Tanglewood). Thus this disc as a whole celebrates the skill and dedication of youthful musicians who play with utter commitment and flair.

Includes Incantation, Passion Prayers, Spirit Musings (Violin Concerto No. 1), Jubilee, Cantos for Slava, Rumi Settings, and Dancing Galaxy.

  • Jubilee for orchestra (2010)
    The Juilliard Orchestra, Xian Zhang, conducting
    Live concert performance, Alice Tully Hall, April 30, 2010;
  • Spirit Musings (Violin Concerto #1) for solo violin and chamber ensemble (1997)
    Marc Rovetti, violin, Student Fellows of the Tanglewood Music Center, Laura Jackson, conducting
    Live concert performance, Seiji Ozawa Hall, July 18, 2003;
  • Passion Prayers for solo cello, flute, clarinet, violin, piano, harp, percussion (1999)
    Scott Kluksdahl, cello; Network for New Music, Jan Kryzwicki, conducting;
  • Incantationfor solo violin (1996)
    Stefan Hersh, solo violin;
  • Cantos for Slavafor viola and piano (2007)
    Leah Gastler, viola and Christopher Janwong McKiggan, piano;
  • Rumi Settingsfor violin and cello (2001)
    Stefan Hersh, violin, Julian Hersh, cello;
  • Dancing Galaxyfor wind ensemble (2004)
    Southern Methodist University Student Wind Ensemble, Jack Delaney conducting
Listen to excerpts
 

Augusta Read Thomas - Chamber & Piano Works

Release Date: July 8, 2014
Label: Nimbus Records NI6261

Volume 1 of this series — devoted to Augusta Read Thomas's music — concentrated upon orchestral and concertante works, with the intention of giving the listener a sense of this composer's virtuosic command of large forces allied to a kaleidoscopic sense of colour and a formal fluidity which defies attempts at cut-and-dried analysis. Volume 2 (Wyastone Estate Limited NI 6261) also emphasizes the latter two attributes, but does so by shifting focus on music of a more intimate nature. Six of the nine works gathered here are for various chamber combinations. The other three, which occupy the greater part of this CD's playing time, are solo piano works, and span the entire chronological range of this collection.

Includes Starlight Ribbons, A Circle Around the Sun, Scat, Pilgrim Soul, Double Helix, Six Piano Etudes, Ring Flourish Blaze, Traces, and Toft Serenade.

"[Augusta Read Thomas] is a major figure in American music. The brilliant fanfare Ring, Flourish, Blaze is for thirteen brass instruments and three screaming, flutter-tonguing piccolos. An original and exciting sound. Listening to Pilgrim Soul ... is indeed something approaching a spiritual experience." — Gary Higginson, MusicWeb International

"This disk is reaffirming the consistency as well as the versatility of her idiom. Throughout this programme, the performances are unfailingly responsive to Thomas's finely wrought and bracingly immediate language. Those who have acquired the earlier disc will need no prompting with its successor... Finely poised...underlying the composer's interest in jazz...eloquence intensified...vividly integrated..."— Richard Whitehouse, Gramophone Magazine, August 2014

 

Augusta Read Thomas: Astral Canticle

Release Date: April 1, 2015
Label: Nimbus Records NI6306

Part of a major series of recordings of works by Augusta Read Thomas being released by Nimbus Records, this CD originates from a concert by musicians of the University of Illinois, which took place on December 9th 2014 in celebration of Thomas' 50th birthday.

The works of Thomas gathered here cover a relatively short span in this composer's chronology — just 13 years from the earliest work (Bells Ring Summer, from 2000) to the most recent (the song Twilight Butterfly, from 2013). Thomas the large-scale thinker is very much on display here, with two substantial orchestral works dominating the proceedings. But Thomas the deft miniaturist is also present, with a brace of vocal and instrumental jeux d'esprit written either for specific occasions or as personal messages to friends and colleagues. If there is a larger theme to be gleaned from this grouping of apparent extremes from Thomas' output, it would surely be that for this of all living composers, music acts as the ultimate means of communication, be it in the shape of a ceremonial orchestral work such as Radiant Circles, or a surprise wedding gift such as Capricci.

The largest work presented here is the gently meditative and brazenly celebratory Astral Canticle, for flute, violin and orchestra. It was premiered on June 1st 2006 by flutist Mathieu Dufour and violinist Robert Chen under Daniel Barenboim as part of his final concerts as the Chicago Symphony's Music Director. The work's two soloists are heard only very lightly supported, and their alternation with the fanfaresque sections which showcased the Chicago Symphony's legendary brass section imparts the work a "call-and-response" quality. The music's harmonic environment moves seamlessly from the open diatonicism of the chant-like solo lines at the opening through dissonances which are bracing without ever being abrasive. Such harmonic flexibility seems to embody Thomas' own words: "Old music deserves new music and new music needs old music."


 

Chamber works for English horn with strings by six American composers
Robert Walters, English Horn

Release Date: January 15, 2024
Label: Oberlin Music

This two-CD-syinget, STRING THEORY, includes two compositions by Thomas:

Pilgrim Soul (2011), for English horn and two violins
Stefan Hersh and Stephen Rose, violin

Stardust (2021), for English horn and string quartet
I. Playful, Buoyant and Spirited
II. Lyrical and Resonant
III. Energized and Animated
Brian Hong, Rannveig Marta Sarc, violin Chloé Thominet, viola
Alexander Hersh, cello

 

Another Day - Mimesis Ensemble

Release Date: December 2023
Label: Arabesque Records Z7014

Includes Augusta Read Thomas's Rainbow Bridge to Paradise performed by Colin Belisle, viola.

The rainbow is one of humankind’s premier symbols, permeating our myths, art, and literature. Throughout history, the rainbow has been seen primarily as a symbol—of peace, covenant, divine sanction... and the rainbow's image is woven into the fabric of our past, present and future. This music’s vibrant, expressive and distinct “picture” is one of an ascent from earth to paradise across a colorful bridge.

 

Sonic Apricity
New Music for Violin/Viola Duo

Release Date: December 9, 2022
Label: Navona Records (NV6485)

Erik Rohde, violin; Jacob Tews, viola
The duo presents a dynamic selection of new pieces from contemporary composers Augusta Read Thomas, Erzsébet Szőnyi, Elliott Miles McKinley, Christopher Walczak, and Michael-Thomas Foumai, an engaging program of works influenced by poetry, notable tales from pop culture, the passage of time, and more. Includes Augusta Read Thomas's Rumi Settings.

 

Mousike: The Art of Muses, Harpsichord Music by Contemporary Female Composers

Release Date: December 2022
Label: Brilliant Classics (96476)

Includes Fire Waltz - Homage to Béla Bartók by Augusta Read Thomas.

 

200° Due Clara

Release Date: June 20, 2022
Label: Chelsea Music Festival Records

In 2019, the Festival commissioned 10 female composers to premiere new works in honor of Clara Schumann's legacy. Chelsea Music Festival Records created an album to commemorate this project by including selections of live performances from our 2019 Festival, with pieces by composers Binna Kim, Augusta Read Thomas, Aigerim Seilova, Helen Grime, and Nicky Sohn!
Includes Clara's Ascent by Augusta Read Thomas.

 

Augusta Read Thomas’s Song Without Words

Release Date: March 11, 2022
Label: Cedille Records

A composition by Chicago composer Augusta Read Thomas, performed by Alex Klein & Phillip Bush.

 

In Transit | Emily Granger

Release Date: March 11, 2022
Label: AVIE Records

Includes Augusta Read Thomas’ Eurythmy Etude “Still Life”, originally for solo piano, stemming from the Greek meaning for beautiful and harmonious rhythm.

“Grainger draws upon her glorious and sonorous sound in the stillness of Augusta Read Thomas’ Eurythmy Etude “Still Life”— Alison Young, Harp Column, March 2022

“…transcription for harp (completed by Granger herself, of Augusta Read Thomas’s ‘Eurythmy Etude “Still Life”,’ (2007) for solo piano). It’s an understated and meditative performance, and also speaks volumes about her skills as an arranger — there is nothing to suggest this piece wasn’t written specifically for solo harp.”— Martin Cheney, Sharp Four Reviews, March 7 2022

 

Daniel Pesca: Promontory

Release Date: November 19, 2021
Label: Neuma Records

Featuring the world premiere recording of Bell Illuminations (2020) by Augusta Read Thomas.

According to Thomas, Daniel Pesca is “world-class . . . His profound musicality and intellect allied to his phenomenal technical skill, sensitivity, sense of touch, color, rhythm, phrasing, allied to his work-ethic and finally then allied to his spirit and generosity, make him an artist to be treasured.”

 

Notturno

Release Date: July 24, 2020
Label: XAS Records

On July 24th, Grammy-winning saxophonist and PRISM Quartet member Timothy McAllister is joined by acclaimed pianist Liz Ames for the release of Notturno on XAS Records. Marking 25 years since his debut solo recording, this compendium draws together cherished masterpieces in the saxophone repertoire alongside new discoveries to usher in the instrument’s future. Dazzling performances of works by William Albright, David Biedenbender, Edison Denisov, Bruno Mantovani, Steven Stucky, and Augusta Read Thomas pay tribute to a rich compositional landscape spanning nearly half a century.

In his liner notes, McAllister describes the recording as "arguably, my most meaningful endeavor...I have often spoken about a deep, conscious effort to weave a wide array of influences into my playing, whether a uniquely American classical sound, concepts from broader wind pedagogy, popular idioms, or traits of the modern French School. I have cherished the artistic journey these pieces inspired. They widened my perspective on timbre and helped me to find my own true voice."

 

Threaded Sky / Miller-Porfiris Duo

Release Date: March 31, 2020
Label: Mp2 Records

Includes Rumi Settings, Double Helix, Silent Moon.
“Threaded Sky” Featuring the complete violin-viola duo music of Augusta Read Thomas.

 

Axiom Brass - First Impressions

Release Date: February 2020

Includes Avian Capriccio
Music by Augusta Read Thomas, Liduino Pitombeira, David Faleris, Matt Ulery, and Ben Hjertmann.

The album was recently named a Silver Medal Winner for Outstanding Achievement by the Global Music Awards.

 

Joey Brink - Ripple Effects

Release Date: March 2020
Label: Joey Brink / Berto Records (701822970884)

New music for carillon at the University of Chicago. Includes Ripple Effects by Augusta Read Thomas.

 

GIANTESS

Release Date: August 18, 2019
Label: Innova Recordings

Includes Plea for Peace

GIANTESS marks the second solo album of flutist Jennie Oh Brown. A deeply personal project, this album is dedicated to her late grandmothers. Both grew up, raised families (at times as single mothers), and survived during a time when Korea was ravaged by war, oppression, and poverty. This collection of works captures their spirits through stories of courage, wonder, faith, struggle, and loss.

"Visionary composer Augusta Read Thomas’ work for flute and string quartet, Plea for Peace, was written to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the world’s first nuclear reactor, CP-1. Originally written as a vocalise (a wordless melody for voice), Thomas has created this version for alto flute. The constant interplay of tension and resolution is heightened by each perfectly nuanced and finely crafted phrase. This work is recorded together with Elizabeth Brausa Brathwaite and Cristina Buciu, violins, viola, and Paula Kosower, cello."

"Soprano Marlissa Hudson led off with Thomas's “Plea for Peace,” a haunting wordless vocalise over string quartet [which is] evocative and moving. Sometimes you don’t need words." — Jim Ruggirello, The Grunion, Long Beach, California, March 29, 2019

"Augusta Read Thomas's Plea for Peace (transcribed for alto flute and strings) is soft and tender, and yet shows from the beginning an immense, tensile strength."— The America Record Guide, February, 2020

 

Maëlstrom: Contemporary American Piano Music

Release Date: April 8, 2018
Label: Nimbus - Alliance (NI6360)

Includes Six Etudes for Piano and Eurythmy Etude

Four American composers, all pianists, all prizewinners at the height of their powers. It is not surprising that the works collected here are idiomatic to the instrument and gratifying to play. Augusta Read Thomas explores the piano’s natural resonance and beauty. Wayne Peterson’s expressive, sweeping virtuosic lines reflect his past as a jazz pianist. Charles Wuorinen’s bracing rhythms leap across the instrument in a modernist romp that echoes the wit and humor of his opera. Eric Moe’s Afro-bebop encore rounds out the program.

"Raley played them all with conviction, affection, and a daunting technique." — The Cincinnati Post

"Sarasota’s music scene shook off the lethargy of summer with a bang Saturday evening with Lynn Raley’s opening concert. This was an exciting musical adventure that stimulated both the emotions and the intellect...a dazzling and completely convincing performance."— The Sarasota Herald-Tribune

 

My Cherished Garden: Piano Works by American Women Composers

Release Date: November 1, 2017
Label: Studio Jeeb (191924354932)

Includes Love Twitters and Eurhythmy Etude for solo piano.
Hyunjung Rachel Chung, piano

Listen to excerpts

Eurhythmy Etude "Still Life"


Love Twitters

 

Open Book - Chicago-based women's vocal ensemble La Caccina

Release Date: September 23, 2017

Purchase CD

In their sophomore album, Open Book, Chicago-based women's vocal ensemble La Caccina "sings the unsingable," choosing texts that reflect the clamor and vulnerability of our innermost thoughts. Open Book contains the world-premier recording of Augusta Read Thomas's Roses, as well as works by other contemporary composers. The eight women of La Caccina bring their characteristic "elegant, bold, inspiring, and centered" sound to Open Book. This album was funded by a grant from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.

 
 

David Finckel (cello) - Taipei Symphony Orchestra/Felix Chiu-Sen Chen

Release Date: December 11, 2015
Label: Artistled 28822-8

Includes Ritual Incantations by Augusta Read Thomas.
Composed in 1999 in response to a commission by Thomas van Straaten, Ritual Incantations was introduced by David Finckel and the Aspen Music Festival Chamber Orchestra under Hugh Wolff the same year. The three movement score gives directions to orchestra, soloist, and conductor all of which reflect the images that define the spiritual world that Thomas seeks to convey in her music:

I: Majestic; driving and persistent; cantabile
II: Mysterious and expansive; longing; yearning
III: Spirited; passionate, bold and lyrical

In Ritual Incantations Finckel offers the ingredients of vitality, passion and sense of risk. This all adds up to an enthralling performance throughout the score’s “musical landscapes.” Well supported by conductor and orchestra, his playing is both brilliant and dedicated. I especially enjoy Finckel’s performance of the central movement where the “Mysterious and expansive; longing; yearning” imagery is evocatively portrayed and delivered with unyielding concentration.
Michael Cookson

 

PRISM Quartet / Paradigm Lost

Release Date: April 1, 2017

Includes Squeeze by Augusta Read Thomas.

 

Vanishing Point

Release Date: November 18, 2016
Label: Ravello Records (RR7948)

Ravello Records presents Vanishing Point, featuring saxophonist Allen Harrington and organist Lottie Enns-Braun in an unusual instrumental pairing not often heard in classical repertoire. “The saxophone and organ are wind instruments that rarely occupy the same space at the same time,” says Enns-Braun, “and it is our contention that this seemingly incongruous combination is actually quite perfect.” Includes Augusta Read Thomas' Angel Tears for organ and saxophone in Bb.

Listen to excerpts

Angel Tears


Earth Prayers

 

Love Twitters

Release Date: August 10, 2016
Label: Studio Jeeb (190394777210)

Includes Love Twitters for solo piano.

 

Modernists - Alarm Will Sound

Release Date: April 29, 2016
Label: Cantaloupe Music (CA21117)

Terror is often the first response to unfamiliarity, and some of the boldest forays into the unfamiliar have launched under the banner of Modernism. Listening to new sounds can be akin to watching a horror movie—with ears covered rather than eyes—but given time, what was once disturbing can become intriguing.

Alarm Will Sound ventures into the outer reaches of propriety on Modernists. The album is bookended by tributes to two masterworks of modern recorded sound that have been arranged for the ensemble: “Revolution 9” by The Beatles (arranged byMatt Marks) and “Poème électronique” by Edgard Varèse (arranged by Evan Hause). Each piece is strange and otherworldly in its own way, with a provocative history of upsetting as many, if not more, listeners than they have won over.

The 23-piece band led by Alan Pierson, AWS Artistic Director, also performs work written for the ensemble by Wolfgang Rihm, Charles Wuorinen, AWS pianist John Orfe, and Augusta Read Thomas (whose “Final Soliloquy of the Interior Paramour” features vocal performances by Kirsten Sollek and Caleb Burhans).

As the Denver Post has noted, “Alarm Will Sound has grabbed the future of classical music and made it now—merging styles, erasing boundaries, championing experimentation and obviously having fun along the way.” This joyful and adventurous spirit fuels the beating heart of the Modernists album.

Listen to excerpts

Augusta Read Thomas’s Final Soliloquy of the Interior Paramour (2004), a quirky setting of two Wallace Stevens poems—the title work, sung by Kirsten Sollek, mezzo-soprano, and Caleb Burhans, countertenor, and “The Poem That Took the Place of a Mountain,” spoken by members of the orchestra—has the angularity that used to be a thumbprint of fearsome modernism, but it is harmonically transparent and invitingly theatrical.— Allan Kozinn, The Wall Street Journal, May 4, 2016 [Full Review]

 

Dawn To Dust / Utah Symphony, Thierry Fischer

Release Date: April 1, 2016
Label: Reference Recordings (FR-719)

Includes Augusta Read Thomas' EOS: Goddess of the Dawn (A Ballet for Orchestra), in honor of Pierre Boulez, commissioned and premiered by the Utah Symphony, Thierry Fischer conducting.

But the real gem of this disc is Augusta Read Thomas’ EOS. Thomas understands the instruments of the orchestra like few of today’s composers do. EOS is an excellent example of her orchestration talents; it’s brilliantly written and each instrument and section is seamlessly integrated into the textural and musical fabric. The score is vibrant, dynamic and rhythmically thrilling. It’s a well conceived and executed work that probes and explores the thematic material fully. It has depth, substance and is filled with real emotion.— Edward Reichel, Salt Lake City Magazine April 20, 2016

"Debussy’s Jeux may spring to mind, but the sparse transparency of Thomas’ palette in EOS edges closer to a metallic Copland. Resonant percussion enhances a mostly heterophonic score evoking various facets of Greek mythology. Thomas fulfills her goal to create a score that is “always luminous,” and the clarity of her vision presents the orchestra in full exposure, with nowhere to hide. The depth of the Utah Symphony’s talents, vigorously organized by Thierry Fischer, are on fine display through the work…(and) the timbres of Thomas’ work clearly evoke a world of ethereal mythology."— Marcus Karl Maroney, The Classical Music Network, April 7, 2016

Grammy-winning Read Thomas, whose Eos celebrates the Goddesses and nymphs of Greek mythology, is content to let the yin side of her personality emerge as her creation dances through your listening room. The opening of the ballet is luminous, the sounds of darting rain wonderfully effective, and the kinetic effects most gratifying. Eos...will surely find a home in the hearts of listeners who prefer to dream without being awakened with a bang. Prediction: The visionary new music, system-testing percussion, and virtual rainbow of colors that distinguish Dust to Dawn, the latest hybrid SACD in Reference Recordings' Fresh! series, guarantee that it will become a hit among music-loving audiophiles who dare play tracks beyond 3 minutes in length. The inventive genius that courses through the recording's three compositions—Control (Five Landscapes for Orchestra) by Nico Muhly, 34; Switch by Andrew Norman, 37; and Eos (Goddess of the Dawn), a ballet for orchestra by Augusta Read Thomas, 52—is, in and of itself, enrapturing, formidable, and breathtaking. But when combined with the spectacular coloristic and percussive effects captured by the Soundmirror engineering team, you have a recording virtually certain to earn Dust to Dawn at least one Grammy nomination and countless airings at audio demos.— Jason Victor Serinus, Stereophile Magazine April 9, 2016

more reviews

 

Dialogue

Release Date: 2015
Label: Crystal Records (CRYSTAL 880)

Carol Rodland recorded Dream Catcher for solo viola

Listen to excerpts

“DREAM CATCHER for solo viola is a burst of expressive ideas. Rodland shapes the piece with vibrant fluency, tracing its surprising flights as if they were cogent ideas popping into her head.”— Donald Rosenberg, Gramophone June 2016

“The title (Dream Catcher) is carefully chosen; although the music is rigorously structured, the composer likes it to imply a “captured improvisation”, as she puts it. The performance here is by the solo viola version dedicatee and is heard in a most eloquent account. Rodland does indeed find the intended spontaneity; yet the fact that the work extends over nine minutes and yet is so eminently satisfying a musical experience underlines the musico-organizational activities behind it all. A remarkable disc that holds many treasures.”— Colin Clarke, Fanfare Magazine

 

Routes of Evanescence

Release Date: December 17, 2015

Includes Pulsar and Incantation for solo violin

 

Full Moon in the City

Release Date: November 13, 2015
Label: Oberlin Music

A showcase for contemporary bassoon repertoire, the bassoonist George Sakakeeny is accompanied by three ensembles from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music to present four premiere recordings of modern works for bassoon by Augusta Read Thomas (Bassoon Concertino), Libby Larsen, Russell Platt, and Peter Schickele.

Listen to excerpts

I found the Bassoon Concertino (2014) by Augusta Read omas (b.1964) especially clear and coherent in tonal language. It is based on three modernist paintings; the melding of tones and tone clusters in Part 2: Wassily Kandinsky: Sky Blue is particularly appealing.— Roger Knox, The WholeNote Magazine in Toronto, Vol. 22 No. 1 [Full Review]

 
 

Differential Moods

Release Date: April 8, 2014
Label: Blue Griffin Recording

Augusta Read Thomas's JEU D'ESPRIT for two saxophones is featured on saxophonist Jeffrey Loeffert's CD, DIFFERENTIAL MOODS. JEU D'ESPRIT, composed as a gift at the request of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, was first performed by them in New York in April 2010. Here, it shares space on the disc with works by Elliott Carter, Igor Karaca, Francois Rosse, and others (Blue Griffin Recording).

 

Resounding Earth

Release Date: October 29, 2013
Label: New Focus Recordings

Augusta Read Thomas' Resounding Earth is a work for written for the intrepid Third Coast Percussion ensemble, exploring the meditative and profound sound world of bells. An instrument that has figured prominently in Thomas' ensemble music, bells have a broad set of associations and functions in world cultures, and this piece reverently explores that range. The composer writes, "the piece is conceived as a cultural statement celebrating interdependence and commonality across all cultures; and as a musical statement celebrating the extraordinary beauty and diversity of expression inherent in these incredible objects." This recording is being released as a two cd set, one an audio recording and the other a high definition video recording of Third Coast's poised performance, expertly filmed and edited by percussionist/video artist Ross Karre.

"We consider this New Focus Records album to be representative of deeply important collaborations — between Third Coast Percussion and August Read Thomas, who has been a generous musical collaborator and a brilliant champion of our ensemble, and between Third Coast and the University of Notre Dame's DeBartolo Performing Arts Center. The DeBartolo Center provided the leadership and support that allowed for our work with Augusta to really flourish. We are so delighted that New Focus Records is helping us share this work with the larger public," says Third Coast Percussion founding member David Skidmore.

Written in 2012, Resounding Earth is the culmination of an ongoing fascination Ms. Thomas has with bells; both with their extraordinary resonant qualities, and with their ritual roles in diverse cultures across the globe. Scored for nearly three hundred unique bells, the composition of the work, and the selection of the specific bells used in the recording, was completed in close collaboration between Ms. Thomas and Third Coast.

Resounding Earth was commissioned by the University of Notre Dame's DeBartolo Performing Arts Center and the Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts, with additional funding from the Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program, with generous funding provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Chamber Music America Endowment Fund.

"The decay of a bell ring can be mapped linearly, but the resonance of struck metal contains in it an element of eternity, floating away rather than being extinguished. Augusta Read Thomas's new four-movement commission for Third Coast Percussion, Resounding Earth, embraces the spiritual connotations of these instruments with titles "Invocation," "Prayer," "Mantra" and "Reverie Carillon." The exuberant trades and dueting of the opening "Invocation" lift skyward as though each bell were tethered to a helium balloon. The dynamic range on display throughout the album further magnifies the elysian quality of Thomas's writing, and Third Coast's performance is as synchronous as it is dramatically fertile. Toss out those Deepak Chopra guided meditations cassettes and find a true state of bliss (with 100% less synthesizer) in Resounding Earth."— Doyle Armbrust, Time Out Chicago (Best of 2013: The top 10 classical and new-music albums of the year)

 

25 X 25: 25 Premieres for 25 Years

Release Date: October 8, 2013
Label: Soundbrush Records

Founded in 1988, the New York Virtuoso Singers are celebrating a quarter century of music-making by commissioning and performing works by over two dozen of today's most celebrated composers, including Spells, for SATB chorus, by Augusta Read Thomas — her elegy for Elliott Carter. Under conductor Harold Rosenbaum, the Virtuoso Singers have always been friends of contemporary music, but with this latest project, they've created — all at once — a little repertoire of important contemporary choral works.

Spells had its first performance on 3 March 2013, at Merkin Hall.

Listen to excerpts
 

Almita & Roland Vamos: Violin-Viola Duos - Violin-Cello Duo

Release Date: October 16, 2012
Label: Impermanence Records (IMP 13)

Almita Vamos, violin, and Roland Vamos, viola, join with cellist Julian Hersh on their cd, "Duos." Featured is Augusta Read Thomas's Silent Moon in both the version for violin and viola, and the version for violin and cello (private release).

Listen to excerpts
 

Silver Tunes - Music for Flute and Organ

Release Date: April 17, 2012
Label: Sterling, CDA 1676-2

Elivi Varga, flute, and Olle Längström, organ, perform Augusta Read Thomas's Angel Tears and Earth Prayers on their recording, "Silver Tunes - Music for Flute and Organ" (Sterling, CDA 1676-2).

Listen to excerpts

Angel Tears

 

Aurora

Release Date: February 14, 2012

Contemporary and Romantic compositions performed by clarinetist Andrew Seigel and organist Ji Hyun Woo, including Augusta Read Thomas's Angel Tears and Earth Prayers, as well as works by Sy Brandon, Daniel Pinkham, Rob Deemer, Josef Rheinberger, and James Sclater.

Listen to excerpts

Movement 1, Angel Tears

 

Movement 2, Earth Prayers

 

Carillon Sky

Release Date: November 13, 2011
Label: Impermanence Records (IMP 13)

Carrie Koffman, saxophonist, performs Augusta Read Thomas's Carillon Sky on her recording, "Carillon Sky," which has been released by Impermanence Records (IMP 13)

Listen to excerpts
 

Drive American

Release Date: October 1, 2011
Label: Albany Records (TROY1298)

Pianist Heidi Louise Williams performs Augusta Read Thomas's Traces on her recording, "Drive American," released by Albany Records (TROY1298)

 

American Images 4 - The Making of a Medium Vol. 19

Release Date: September 23, 2011
Label: Crystal Records CD949

The world premiere recording of Augusta Read Thomas's FOUR ETUDES is featured on this album of performances by James Giles, pianist. The four etudes are "Orbital Beacons - homage to Berio," "Fire Waltz - homage to Bartók," "Cathedral Waterfall - homage to Messiaen," and "On Twilight - homage to Boulez" (Albany Records, TROY860).

Listen to excerpts
 

Notable Women

Release Date: August 30, 2011
Label: Cedille Records CDR 90000 126

Includes the chamber work, Moon Jig (for violin, cello, and piano), by Augusta Read Thomas, as well as works by Joan Tower, Jennifer Higdon, and others. Performed by the Lincoln Trio, who also commissioned the work in 2005.

Listen to excerpts
 

Going Solo: Unaccompanied Works for Violin & Viola

Release Date: April 5, 2011
Label: MSR Classics, MS 1397

Stephanie Sant'Ambrogio performs Augusta Read Thomas's Incantation for solo viola on her recording, "Going Solo: Unaccompanied Works for Violin & Viola," which was released by MSR Classics in April 2011.

 

American Weavings

Release Date: March 4, 2011
Label: Crystal Records CD839

"American Weavings" features American music performed Carol Rodland on viola and Catherine Rodland on organ. Included are the works Incantation and Pulsar by Augusta Read Thomas. (Crystal Records CD839).

Listen to excerpts

Version for Viola

"Augusta Read Thomas's two solo viola pieces, PULSAR and INCANTATION, operate on a mesmerizing plane anchored in a Bachian sense of line and structure, and bombarded with echoes and reflections." — Laurence Vittes, Gramophone

"One of the bonuses in this collection is the inclusion of the two brief wonderful works for solo viola by Augusta Read Thomas. I am very familiar with much of her work and she is a talented composer with a unique voice. Incantation is a very plaintive sounding work... Pulsar is characterized by long melodic lines interspersed with short urgent bursts.  Much of Thomas' music is fully and precisely notated but sounds very spontaneous, almost like it is being improvised. Like most of her music there is a beauty but also some obvious technical prowess that the performer must master.  Carol Rodland...a sensitive master of her instrument and [her] passion for these pieces shows in these performances."— Daniel Coombs, Audiophile Audition

 

Heaven and Earth

Release Date: November 15, 2009
Label: SFGC0901

The San Francisco Girls Chorus, conducted by Susan McMane, present a selection of works including Augusta Read Thomas's TWO E. E. CUMMINGS SONGS on their double CD, "Heaven and Earth." TWO E. E. CUMMINGS SONGS was commissioned for the Chorus's 30th Anniversary season, and appear on the "Earth" disc, along with works by Szymko, Paulus, Neaum, Frank, Mollicone, Gershwin, Berlin, and Arlen (SFGC0901).

Listen to excerpts

II. (kiss me)

 

Rhapsodic Musings

Release Date: September 29, 2009
Label: Cedille Records CDR 90000 113

Jennifer Koh features Augusta Read Thomas's PULSAR on her Cedille release, "Rhapsodic Musings: 21st Century Works for Solo Violin." This 5:33 work takes its name from a kind of neutron star that spins rapidly, pushing out regular pulses of radiation. Marked "Passionate, intense, driving," the composition is accordingly packed with energy, much of it fortissimo. This is a piece, one might say, in which the violin discovers its inner trumpet. Also included on this recording are pieces by Elliott Carter, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and John Zorn (Cedille Records CDR 90000 113).

Listen to excerpts
 

Music from Raritan River

Release Date: October 1, 2008
Label: Albany Records, TROY860

"Music from Raritan River" features the Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo performing Augusta Read Thomas's memory:SWELLS. Commissioned by Raritan River Music, memory:SWELLS is written for the unusual tuning of E, A, C, G, B, E (Guitar 1) and D, A, C-sharp, G, B, F (Guitar 2), designed to enhance the non-traditional aspects of the guitar sound.

Listen to excerpts
 

Melville's Dozen

Release Date: September 23, 2008
Label: Innova Records #691

Augusta Read Thomas's Love Twitters is included as one of a baker's dozen of American composers' works featured on this album Pianist Nicola Melville commissioned this work with the request that it be "recognizably American music"; the result was Thomas's Love Twitters, which uses Irving Berlin's "They Say It's Wonderful as its basis. (Innova Records #691).

Listen to excerpts
 

Odd Couple

Release Date: September 16, 2008
Label: Oxingale Records CD (OX2015)

Recorded at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University in Montréal, Québec, Odd Couple pairs Matt Haimovitz with Geoffrey Burleson, presenting works for cello and piano by Augusta Read Thomas, David Sanford, Elliott Carter, and Samuel Barber. Thomas's Cantos for Slava, in celebration of Mstislav Rostropovich — and first performed by Haimovitz and Burleson in spring of 2008 — is featured on this Oxingale Records CD (OX2015).

Listen to excerpts

Canto #2

 

Canto #4

 
 

Sun Threads

Release Date: July 30, 2008
Label: ARTCD 19992007

The Walden Chamber Players are current and former members of prestigious musical organizations such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Artistic Director Christof Huebner is a member and current Artistic Director of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.  Members of the ensemble perform at leading festivals throughout the United States and abroad.

This recording, "Sun Threads," was funded in part through a grant from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc. The CD contains premiere recordings of:

A Circle Around the Sun for piano trio (2000) 5:01
Sun Threads for string quartet (1999-2002) 29:47
Toft Serenade for violin and piano (2006) 7:54
Scat for oboe, string trio, and piano (2007) 6:18
Silent Moon for violin and viola (2006) 9:00
Moon Jig for piano trio (2005) 5:07

Listen to excerpts
 

Terpsichore's Dream

Release Date: January 25, 2008
Label: ARTCD 2007

A world premiere recording, conducted by Cliff Colnot, of Augusta Read Thomas' TERPSICHORE'S DREAM for chamber orchestra (2007), as performed by members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chicago based freelance musicians, Robert Chen, concertmaster.  This is Thomas's fifth self-produced recording on her ARTCD label.

Edward Reichel of the Deseret News (Salt Lake City, Utah) writes, "Terpsichore's Dream is an evocative, atmospheric piece that is filled with subtle lyricism and rhythmic vitality. It's the kind of piece that appeals to both musicians, because it spotlights them individually and sectionally, and to audiences, because of its irresistible infectiousness. Colnot and his players give a fabulous reading that captures the vibrancy of the music. Their playing is articulate and their execution is immaculate. And throughout they bring a luminous expressiveness to the performance."

Listen to excerpts

"Terpsichore's Dream for chamber orchestra from 2007 is a parade of glittering musical images that steadily gains energy; it would make a great work-out for any ensemble."— Andrew Clements, The Guardian

 

Traces — Magnetic Fireflies

Release Date: November 27, 2007
Label: ARTCD 20002007

A new CD of five previously unrecorded works by Augusta Read Thomas. Traces for solo piano, played by Amy Briggs Dissanayake, is a world premiere recording from 2007; and Magneticfireflies, Silver Chants the Litanies, Dancing Galaxy, and Ring, Flourish, Blaze, are conducted by Jack Delaney and performed by the Meadows Wind Ensemble plus guests. The CD is available from Amazon.com.  The works date from 2000 to 2007.  This is Thomas's fourth self-produced recording on her ARTCD label.

Listen to excerpts
 

The Ying Quartet play LifeMusic2 (United States)

Release Date: November 13, 2007
Label: Quartz Music Ltd., QTZ2055

Augusta Read Thomas's Eagle at Sunrise, is featured on the Ying Quartet's United States: LifeMusic2, along with compositions by Ned Rorem, Chen Yi, Jennifer Higdon, and William Bolcolm. As part of their LifeMusic project, The Ying Quartet commissions two new works per year from established and emerging artists. The initial inspiration for each piece on this CD is drawn from some aspect of life in America.

 

NATHAN COLE — RAPID APPROACH

Release Date: August 28, 2007
Label: Bacchanale Records

Augusta Read Thomas's PULSAR, INCANTATION, CAPRICE, and RUSH join works by J.S. Bach and Béla Bartok on this recording featuring the violinist Nathan Cole. PULSAR was commissioned by the BBC, jointly with the Royal Philharmonic Society; INCANTATION was composed at the request of Cathryn Tait; CAPRICE was made as a wedding gift to Greg and Rachel Barton Pine in 2005; and, RUSH was commissioned by Saint Paul Sunday on American Public Media Radio, for Rachel Barton Pine (Bacchanale Records).

Listen to excerpts
 

Snapshots Oliver Knussen Tribute CD

Release Date: November 13, 2006
Label: London Sinfonietta

Augusta Read Thomas's LIGHT THE FIRST LIGHT OF EVENING, written for Oliver Knussen, is one of thirteen works by contemporary composers on "Snapshots," on the London Sinfonietta label (SINF CD1-2004). "Snapshots" is the recording of the Royal Festival Hall fiftieth birthday tribute to Knussen, and each of thirteen compositions features was composed as a birthday present for him. George Benjamin conducts the London Sinfonietta. LIGHT THE FIRST LIGHT OF EVENING is composed for orchestra, and this recording represents the world premiere.

Listen to excerpts
 

American Virtuoso

Release Date: November 1, 2006
Label: Albany Records, TROY860

The world premiere recording of Augusta Read Thomas's FOUR ETUDES is featured on this album of performances by James Giles, pianist. The four etudes are "Orbital Beacons - homage to Berio," "Fire Waltz - homage to Bartók," "Cathedral Waterfall - homage to Messiaen," and "On Twilight - homage to Boulez" (Albany Records, TROY860).

Listen to excerpts
 

Prairie Sketches

Release Date: October 16, 2006
Label: ARTCD 19912005

A new CD of thirteen chamber works by Augusta Read Thomas, Prairie Sketches, conducted by Cliff Colnot and performed by the Callisto Ensemble plus guests, is available from Amazon.com. Works included are Rumi Settings, Piano Etudes, Incantation, Bubble: Rainbow (Spirit Level), Bells Ring Summer, Pulsar, Chant, and Prairie Sketches I.

John von Rhein, music critic of the The Chicago Tribune, wrote on January 11 2005 "When writing for voice and instruments, Thomas is particularly drawn to texts that resonate with spiritual wonderment and suggest intriguing possibilities of color and texture.  Thomas's setting, like the poem, mirrors the shifting light over a windswept Kansas prairie from dawn to dusk to late evening. Winds, strings and harp build rich, resonant chords in the opening stanzas, bathed by the brilliance of the solo soprano lines. A mystical choral refrain, "My Soul, breathe deep," amplifies the image of tall green grasses reaching "to embrace silken sunlight." When the poetic imagery grows denser, so does the solo soprano part. Indeed, the vocal lines take on a bounding, filigreed energy that propels them high above a luminous field of instrumental activity punctuated by the bright metallic clangor of crotales and temple bells representing twinkling stars."

On the same day, Wynne Delacoma of The Chicago Sun-Times wrote "Like all of Thomas' compositions, Prairie Sketches explodes with color. Few composers have as keen an ear for the expressive possibilities in a cello's deep, dark rumble, a clarinet's smoky velvet or the clarion authority of a single, plucked harp string... In Thomas' music, poet Zimmerman's vast Kansas prairie was a joyful place of endless possibility."

Writing in the New York Times "Arts & Leisure" section in December 2006, Steve Smith enthuses, " In Prairie Sketches I, which includes harp and a chorus of three female voices, Ms. Thomas revels in the poet Suzann Zimmerman's paean to a sweeping Kansas landscape with music by turns radiant and ethereal."

Listen to excerpts
 

New York Philharmonic — Thomas/Druckman/Hartke

Release Date: June 1, 2006
Label: New World Records 80648-2

Augusta Read Thomas's GATHERING PARADISE, settings of Emily Dickinson poems, is featured on this New York Philharmonic recording, with Lorin Maazel conducting and soprano Heidi Grant Murphy. "As one would expect a composer of Thomas's symphonic bent, the orchestration, which employs a large instrumentarium, , vividly mirrors and subtly underscores the text."

Listen to excerpts
 

Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood — A 10th Anniversary Celebration

Label: Tanglewood, TWD-CD1

Augusta Read Thomas's SPIRIT MUSINGS was performed by the Fellows of the Tanglewood Music Center as part of Tanglewood's 2003 season, and part of it is featured on the new recording, Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood — A 10th Anniversary Celebration. Commissioned by Thomas van Straaten, this work for violin and chamber orchestra has a duration of eleven minutes. Movements II and III are represented here.

Of Spirit Musings, Seth Brodsky writes in the All Music Guide, "its opening violin line, spidery and liquid, gradually enlists and entangles the entire ensemble in a volatile venture of expansion and contraction, elastic and intensely lyrical. The work's sound is also characteristic of Thomas' music: a swirl of thirds, sixths, and tritones envelopes the ensemble in the most radiant tintinnabulation, betraying Thomas' devotion to French music (Debussy, Messiaen, Boulez), but also to the great contrapuntalists (Bach and Byrd). But in their "finite infinity," the concise, intimate breath of her gestures confess great sympathy with Mahler and her favorite poet, Emily Dickinson."

Listen to excerpts
 

Precipice: Modern Marimba

Release Date: August 22, 2006
Label: Albany Records #TROY855

Silhouettes, the four-movement marimba transcription of Augusta Read Thomas's Dialogs (two movements from this solo guitar work) and PIANO ETUDES #2 and #4, is performed on this CD by Nathanial Bartlett. The four movements are named for the great classical and jazz masters to whom Thomas paid modest homage in the piece: I. Like Toru Takemitsu crossed with Bill Evans, II. Like Igor Stravinsky crossed with Thelonius Monk, III. Like Pierre Boulez crossed with Oscar Peterson, and IV. Like Béla Bartók crossed with Art Tatum.

Listen to excerpts
 

Sound Vessels

Release Date: June 27, 2006
Label: Centaur CRC 2765

Augusta Read Thomas's CHANT (1990, rev. 2002), here in its premiere recording, is "sober and ecstatic at once. It begins with the solo cello, keening in a spare song in long arcs. The piano, while always an equal partner to the cello, above all offers punctuation, interjections, and outbursts that underpin and motivate the cello part." This work joins others by Richard Wernick, Robert Helps, and Elliott Carter, on "Sound Vessels," duos for cello and piano performed by Scott Kluksdahl on cello and Noreen Cassidy-Polera on piano

 

Blooming Sounds

Release Date: December 1, 2005
Label: Albany Records, TROY810

Augusta Read Thomas is featured twice on Blooming Sounds (Works for Unaccompanied Violin). Her 2003 work, Pulsar, was commissioned by the BBC jointly with the Royal Philharmonic Society, and first performed by Ilya Gringolts in London. Incantation dates from 1995, and was premiered by Catherine Tait. Both works are presented here in their world premiere recordings. The album's other eight tracks include late twentieth century works by Sharafyan, Khoudoyan, Segerstam, Felder, as well as Hindemith's Sonata Op. 31, No. 2 (Albany Records, TROY810).

Listen to excerpts

Pulsar

 

Incantation

 

De Toda La Eternidad

Release Date: October 25, 2005
Label: ACA Digital Recordings #CM20090

among dawn flowers, by Augusta Read Thomas, is featured on De Toda La Eternidad, an album of songs by American women composers, along with offerings by Libby Larsen, Louise Talma, Margaret Bonds, and Gabriela Lena Frank. among dawn flowers is a 5:07 work in two movements, for soprano and piano, with a text by Basho. The work was premiered by Barbara Ann Martin in Denmark in 2001. This premiere recording features the soprano Bonnie Pomfret and Laura Gordy on piano.

 

American Masters for the 21st Century

Release Date: January 11, 2005
Label: innova 616: 5CD

Augusta Read Thomas's TWO ETUDES (the first two of a collection of six) are presented here on the Society for New Music's collection of works commissioned by them over a period of thirty years. In addition, Thomas's Bells Ring Summer is on this five-CD Innova collection (innova 616: 5CD).

Listen to excerpts

Excerpt from Movement II, Fire Waltz (homage to Bartók)

 

Toccata Festiva

Release Date: December 1, 2004
Label: Mark Custom Recordings (MCD-5438)

This album of band works performed by the DePauw University Band, conducted by Craig Paré, includes Augusta Read Thomas's consortium-commissioned piece, Magneticfireflies. "Thomas' wind textures feature cross fades and lightning-fast contrasts in instrumental colors, dynamics, and rhythm; like a kaleidoscope, with an initial prodding of motion, it is in constant movement, only rarely returning to the familiar." The album is available from Mark Custom Recordings.

 

...Words of the Sea...

Release Date: July 19, 2004
Label: ARTCD 19952002

The new CD of works by Augusta Read Thomas, "...Words of the Sea...," is available from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra store and Amazon.com. Conducted by Pierre Boulez and featuring the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, ...Words of the Sea... contains the seventeen minute title work, which was premiered by the CSO in December 1, 1996, and In My Sky at Twilight, a 19-minute work featuring soprano Christine Brandes and premiered in December 2002 by the CSO's MusicNOW Ensemble. In June 2006, Augusta Read Thomas re-released this CD, adding to it Carillon Sky for solo violin and 14 players, with Oliver Knussen conducting, Baird Dodge as violin soloist, and the CSO's MusicNOW Ensemble.

Of In My Sky at Twilight, The New Yorker's Russell Platt said "Thomas, a prodigious talent, is the most accessible ambassador of the new modernism, and the piece, a fierce and jagged take on the love poetry of Sappho, Neruda, and Flaubert, among others, shines with passion and color." And Joshua Rosenblum said in an Opera News review, "Is it worth going online and paying eleven bucks to hear nineteen minutes of music for voice and chamber orchestra by Augusta Read Thomas? Definitely."

Words of the Sea and In My Sky at Twilight are two of Thomas's seven orchestral compositions for the CSO, and part of an impressive list of works for the world's premier orchestras that includes Ceremonial for Daniel Barenboim and the CSO, and Aurora for Daniel Barenboim and the Berlin Philharmonic.

The four-movement Words of the Sea, was inspired by the Wallace Stevens 1934 poem "The Idea of Order at Key West," which contrasts the artless, natural power of a raging ocean with the notion of a voice in song. Each movement bears a subtitle taken from the poem: I. ...words of the sea...; II. ...the ever-hooded, tragic-gestured sea...; III. ...beyond the genius of the sea...; IV. ...mountainous atmospheres of sky and sea... (homage to Debussy). Seth Brodsky says in the liner notes, "As much as anything, the 17 loaded minutes of Words of the Sea constitute a wildly active barometer which, in Thomas's characteristically euphoric mode, records the rare climate of Stevens's poem." Words of the Sea, commissioned by the Ernst and Young Emerging Composers Fund of the CSO, was the beginning of an eight-year working relationship between Thomas and Pierre Boulez.

Donald Rosenberg of the Cleveland Plain Dealer said, "Words of the Sea [is] a vibrant series of aquatic images that had no difficulty standing alongside favorite pieces by Barber and Prokofiev. Words of the Sea is a healthy example of a work from a composer who is smitten with the chameleonlike qualities of the orchestra and knows how to exploit its myriad facets." And John von Rhein of the Chicago Tribune said, "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."

Listen to excerpts

Words of the Sea

 

In My Sky at Twilight

 

Carillon Sky (excerpt 1)

 

Carillon Sky (excerpt 2)

 

"Words of the Sea [is] a vibrant series of aquatic images that had no difficulty standing alongside favorite pieces by Barber and Prokofiev. Words of the Sea is a healthy example of a work from a composer who is smitten with the chameleonlike qualities of the orchestra and knows how to exploit its myriad facets."— Donald Rosenberg, Cleveland Plain Dealer

 

Love Songs for Chorus

Release Date: February 24, 2004
Label: ARSIS label (CD 138)

Love Songs for Chorus, featuring the Woodley Ensemble with Elizabeth Blakeslee on harp, conducted by Frank Albinder, contains Augusta Read Thomas's Love Songs for mixed chorus a cappella (settings of seven famous epigrams on the subject of love), as well as Bernard Rands' Canti d'amor and ...among the voices..., and William Hawley's Six Madrigals. The album is available on the ARSIS label (CD 138).

Listen to excerpts

Movement 6

 

Movement 7

 

Cello Classics New & Old

Release Date: 2003
Label: ArtistLed

In Cello Classics New & Old, David Finckel, who premiered Ritual Incantations in 1999 with the Aspen Music Festival Chamber Orchestra, once again performs the work, this time in a recording with the Taipei Symphony Orchestra, Felix Chiu-Sen Chen conducting. The work is paired with Dvorák's Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104, in this 2005 recording (Taipei Symphony Orchestra recordings).

Listen to excerpts

First Movement

 

Second Movement

 
 

Vol. 20: A Tribute to Daniel Barenboim

Release Date: 2003
Label: Chicago Symphony Orchestra Recordings CSO CD06-2

CEREMONIAL, by Augusta Read Thomas, is the final piece on this Chicago Symphony Orchestra "From the Archives" recording. Thomas was the Mead Composer in Residence at the Symphony for Maestro Barenboim's last nine years there; CEREMONIAL was written especially for him, and was the first piece of music the Chicago Symphony played in Orchestra Hall in the twenty-first century. (Chicago Symphony Orchestra Recordings CSO CD06-2).

Listen to excerpts
 
 

Anthem

Release Date: September 9, 2003
Label: Artemis Classics (OX2004)

Augusta Read Thomas's BELLS RING SUMMER is included on this CD of cello works performed by Matt Haimovitz, along with others by such diverse composers as Tod Machover, Luna Pearl Wolf, Lou Harrison, Toby Twining, and Jimi Hendrix

Listen to excerpts
 

Chanticleer - A Portrait

Release Date: March 18, 2003
Label: Teldec Classics, #0927 49702-2

Love is a Beautiful Dream, an excerpt from Augusta Read Thomas's seven-text choral work, LOVE SONGS, is performed expertly by Chanticleer on their 25th anniversary collection, "Chanticleer - A Portrait." Chanticleer premiered the work, which was commissioned by seven commissioners for their significant others, in 1997, and it is joined here by eighteen other notable works spanning the history of music from Gregorian chant to "A Charlie Brown Christmas."

Listen to excerpts
 

Dream Journal

Release Date: January 29, 2002
Label: Albany Records, #TROY488

Augusta Read Thomas's PASSION PRAYERS is featured on the Network for New Music's new Albany Records recording , DREAM JOURNAL. The Network for New Music also commissioned the piece.

"PASSION PRAYERS, a nine-minute work formed in several sections of varying character, is an homage to the lyrical, expressive, sensitive, eloquent and poetic qualities of Scott Kluksdahl's [cello] playing."

Listen to excerpts
 

Premieres for Clarinet

Release Date: March 27, 2001
Label: Gasparo label (GSCD-341)

This album of clarinet pieces commissioned by the Band and Orchestral Division of the Yamaha Corporation of America, and performed by Arthur Campbell, includes Augusta Read Thomas's From Icarus with GustO, as well as works by Shulamit Ran, Bruce Saylor, Pieter Snapper, and others. The album is available on the Gasparo label (GSCD-341).

** This work has been withdrawn from the composer's catalog, and is no longer available. **

 

American Music in the 1990s

Release Date: January 16, 2001
Label: Gasparo, GSCD-349

Augusta Read Thomas's CHANT, commissioned and premiered by The Fischer Duo in Houston in 1991, is featured in this collection of works composed in the 1990s. Other works on the recording are by Samuel Jones, George Rochberg, and Pierre Jalbert. The recording is available on the Gasparo label (GSCD-349).

 

American Music for Flute & Guitar

Release Date: April 25, 2000
Label: Albany Records # TROY379

Augusta Read Thomas's ECLIPSE MUSINGS is featured on this recording of American works for flute and guitar, performed by Bonita Boyd (flute) and Nicholas Goluses (guitar). Also included are works by Katharine Hoover, Joan Tower, and Roberto Sierra.

** This work has been withdrawn from the composer's catalog, and is no longer available. **

 

New American Soloists

Release Date: March 1, 2000
Label: Albany Records # TROY347

Augusta Read Thomas's SPIRIT MUSINGS, is included in this recording of new American works for soloists, performed by the Cleveland Chamber Symphony. Also included are works by Jacob Druckman, John Musto, and Jeffery Jacob (Albany Records # TROY347).

 

Trios By Helps, Moe, Diesendruck & Thomas

Release Date: September 15, 1999
Label: Centaur #CRC 2410

ANGEL CHANT is featured on this album of Piano Trios by Robert Helps, Eric Moe, Tamar Diesendruck, and Augusta Read Thomas, performed by the Lions Gate Trio.

Centaur Records features this recording in the catalog of new releases, at http://www.centaurrecords.com/new-releases.htm. The recording is available as Centaur #CRC 2410.

** This work has been withdrawn from the composer's catalog, and is no longer available. **

 

Grammy Award-winning recording!
Colors of Love

Release Date: May 14, 1999
Label: Teldec Classics

"Colors of Love," the album by Chanticleer, won a Grammy Award at the February 2000 ceremony in Los Angeles for "Best Recording by a Small Ensemble, with or without conductor."

This recording of all contemporary music, featuring works by Augusta Read Thomas, Steven Stucky, John Tavener, Bernard Rands, Zhou Long, Chen Yi, and Steven Sametz, is available on Teldec (#3984-24570-2) from your favorite record retailer.

Commissioned by renowned choral group Chanticleer, Augusta Read Thomas composed THE RUB OF LOVE, "a short madrigal that is virtuosic and comical," and LOVE SONGS, an "extended experiment in choral texture," for the album COLORS OF LOVE .

Listen to excerpts

The Rub of Love

 

Love Songs
(III. Love is a Beautiful Dream)

 
 

Seahorse Serenade

Release Date: 1998
Label: CSO

SEAHORSE SERENADE, for chamber orchestra, was commissioned by the Shedd Aquarium for the Seahorse Symphony exhibit, and performed for this CD by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The piece is playing as a tape loop in the Seahorse exhibit at the aquarium for the next several years.

** This work has been withdrawn from the composer's catalog, and is no longer available. **

 

Lines for Solo Cello

Release Date: November 18, 1997
Label: Composers Recordings, Inc., CRI #762

Augusta Read Thomas's SPRING SONG has prominent placement on CRI's LINES FOR SOLO CELLO, featuring performances by cellist Scott Kluksdahl.

"SPRING SONG resulted from a previous collaboration with Kluksdahl, who presented west coast premiere performances of (Thomas's) cello concerto VIGIL. The performance so inspired her that she asked him if she could write a solo work, and he eagerly accepted. The work is like the gradual descent of a bird from the heights of flight to gravity-bound earth, starting in the cello's upper register and gradually covering the entire range of the instrument. It moves from a pure monophonic line to denser textures with double stops, at the same time incorporating progressively more tonal gestures (including a series of triumphant-sounding major sixth double-stops that first appear about two minutes in, and return near the conclusion). "

Listen to excerpts
 

Angel Shadows - Flute Sonatas

Release Date: August 1, 1997
Label: 4-Tay Records #4006

Augusta Read Thomas's ANGEL SHADOWS, commissioned and premiered by Laurel Ann Maurer at Carnegie Hall, is the title work on this anthology of American flute music. Along with the world premiere recording of ANGEL SHADOWS, this album contains world premiere recordings of works by Thom Ritter George, Meyer Kupferman, and Dana Paul Perna, as well as performances of Walter Piston's and Lowell Liebermann's Sonatas for Flute and Piano. The recording is in the 4-Tay catalog (4-Tay #4006).

** This work has been withdrawn from the composer's catalog, and is no longer available. **

 

Strange Attractors : New American Music For Piano

Release Date: April 15, 1997
Label: Albany Records #231

Augusta Read Thomas's ANGEL SHADOWS, commissioned and premiered by Laurel Ann Maurer at Carnegie Hall, is the title work on this anthology of American flute music. Along with the world premiere recording of ANGEL SHADOWS, this album contains world premiere recordings of works by Thom Ritter George, Meyer Kupferman, and Dana Paul Perna, as well as performances of Walter Piston's and Lowell Liebermann's Sonatas for Flute and Piano. The recording is in the 4-Tay catalog (4-Tay #4006).

** This work has been withdrawn from the composer's catalog, and is no longer available. **

 

Sound Encounters II

Release Date: September 25, 1996
Label: GM Recordings #2045

VIGIL, by Augusta Read Thomas, is included on this album of performances by the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, featuring Norman Fischer as solo cellist. Also included are George Burt's Exit Music III: an Interlude, Edward Miller's Beyond the Wheel , and Edwin London's TWO A'Marvell's FOR WORDS (GM Recordings #2045).

Listen to excerpts
 

American Trombone Concertos -- Volume 2

Release Date: May 21, 1996
Label: BIS #CD-788

MEDITATION FOR TROMBONE AND ORCHESTRA by Augusta Read Thomas is featured on this album, AMERICAN TROMBONE CONCERTOS - Volume 2, featuring performances by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales with Christian Lindberg as soloist, and Grant Llewellyn conducting. Also included are concerti by Christopher Rouse, and Carlos Chávez.

Listen to excerpts
 

First Edition recording of The Louisville Orchestra

Release Date: 1995
Label: First Edition LCD010

To buy this First Edition recording of The Louisville Orchestra, containing TRIPLE CONCERTO and WIND DANCE, please contact A.R.T. MUSINGS Publishing Company.

Augusta Read Thomas's TRIPLE CONCERTO and WIND DANCE are prominently featured on this First Edition recording of The Louisville Orchestra, along with two compositions by Tania León (First Edition LCD010).

** NOTE: These works have been withdrawn from the composer's catalog, and are no longer available. **

 

Music for Saxophone & Cello

Release date: October 29, 2015
Label: Centaur

The debut recording from the Helton-Thomas duo is a smorgasbord of contemporary compositions that range from the ruminative to the boisterous, the melodious to the dissonant, in short a perfect reflection of the modern zeitgeist. Featuring compositions by Dorothy Chang, a spectral and spookily lovely Jonathan Elliott, Edison Denisov, Augusta Read Thomas, Mark Engebretson, and Libby Larsen.​ Includes Augusta Read Thomas' Lake Reflecting Stars with Moonrise, for saxophone & cello.

 

The Avalon String Quartet: Live at Caramoor

Label: New Tangent Records

The Avalon String Quartet performs Augusta Read Thomas's FUGITIVE STAR live at Caramoor. Also featured are quartets by J. Haydn (Op. 33, No. 2) and Beethoven (Op. 59, No. 2).

Listen to excerpts
 

The Orion Ensemble

Label: Orion Ensemble

Augusta Read Thomas's ANGEL MUSINGS, here performed by its commissioning organization, The Orion Ensemble, is a chamber work in two movements. "A densely packed composition, Angel Musings paints a cosmic picture of the transformation from darkness to light by exploring extremes of dynamics and textures. As Thomas suggests, the music could be taking place in the moment between death and rebirth...Collaborating in rehearsal with the Ensemble musicians, Augusta Read Thomas summed up Angel Musings as such: "The loud, explosive, rhythmic chords bring forth the energy of star constellations above — particularly meaningful for a group called Orion."" (Recording produced by The Orion Ensemble, www.orionensemble.org).

** This work has been withdrawn from the composer's catalog, and is no longer available. **

 

Parable

Augusta Read Thomas's SONATA for solo trumpet is presented here on Terry Everson's CD, Parable, along with other trumpet works by such notable composers as Norman Dello Joio, Vincent Persichetti, Jan Krzywicki, Joseph Turrin, and Robert Suderberg. "Fanfare and dramatic song, two musical gestures ideally suited to the trumpet, are combined under vibrant rhythmic and dynamic diversity to form the musical argument of Augusta Read Thomas' unaccompanied sonata. The work was completed in London while Thomas was pursuing postgraduate study at the Royal Academy of Music."

** This work has been withdrawn from the composer's catalog, and is no longer available. **

 

Scrumptious Morsels

The Amelia Piano Trio presents Augusta Read Thomas's "...a circle around the sun...", which was composed for them (as a commission by The Children's Memorial Foundation of Children's Hospital, Chicago, in honor of George D. Kennedy), on their demo album, Scrumptious Morsels.

Listen to excerpts
 

Celebration!

Farnham Youth Choir marks 25 years of performing and recording with Celebration!, featuring Augusta Read Thomas's Four Basho Settings, with texts from four haiku by Matsuo Basho ("Skylark," "Cuckoo," "Butterfly," and "Dawn Flowers").

Listen to excerpts
 

Wonderland

Release Date: October 31, 2016
Label: Orchid Classics

Wonderland - Many Composers write short works related to Alice in Wonderland. Augusta Read Thomas contributed by composing Track 24, Alice’s Evidence, performed by Matthew Trusler & Ashley Wass in 2016.

 

Magneticfireflies

Release date: April 1, 2012

Texas All-State 5A Symphonic Band & Timothy Weiss at the 2012 Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA) perform Magneticfireflies for high school wind ensemble.

 
 

Magneticfireflies

Release Date: November 13, 2015
Label: Mark Records

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Wind Ensemble & John Climer, 2015 WASBE San Jose, USA (Live) perform Magneticfireflies for high school wind ensemble.