Augusta Read Thomas

Thomas studied composition with Oliver Knussen at Tanglewood; Jacob Druckman at Yale University; Alan Stout and Bill Karlins at Northwestern University; and at the Royal Academy of Music in London (1989). She was a Bunting Fellow at Radcliffe College in 1990-91 and a Junior Fellow in the Society of Fellows at Harvard University from 1991 to 1994. Thomas was the longest-serving Mead Composer-in-Residence with the Chicago Symphony, for Daniel Barenboim and Pierre Boulez, from 1997 to 2006. This residency culminated in the premiere of Astral Canticle for solo flute, solo violin and orchestra, one of two finalists for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in Music. During her residency, Thomas premiered nine commissioned orchestral works and helped establish the MusicNOW series.[2]

Thomas won the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize, among many other awards. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. A former chairperson of the American Music Center, she serves on many boards and, according to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, "has become one of the most recognizable and widely loved figures in American Music." Recent and upcoming commissions include those from the Santa Fe Opera in collaboration with the San Francisco Opera and several other opera companies, PEAK Performances at Montclair State University and the Martha Graham Dance Company,[3] The Cathedral Choral Society of Washington D.C,[4] The Indianapolis Symphony, Tanglewood, The Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra,[5] Des Moines Symphony, Boston Symphony, the Utah Symphony, Wigmore Hall in London, Indianapolis Symphonic Choir,[6] JACK quartet,[7] Third Coast Percussion,[8] Spektral Quartet,[9] Chicago Philharmonic,[10] Eugene Symphony,[11] the Danish Chamber Players,[12] Notre Dame University, Janet Sung,[13] and the Fromm Foundation.[14]

Thomas was born in 1964 in Glen Cove, New York. She is one of 10 children of James A. and Susan N. Thomas (née Norton). Her mother was a kindergarten teacher for 30 years at the Green Vale School. Augusta attended St. Paul's School, a boarding high school in Concord, New Hampshire. She began piano lessons at the age of 4, and her teacher often assigned her small composition projects on the side; Thomas has said that these small projects sparked her interest in composition. She took up trumpet in third grade.

After graduating from high school, Thomas enrolled as a music student (specializing in trumpet performance) at Northwestern University in 1983. Northwestern's composition program is prominent today, but did not exist when Thomas was an undergraduate. An exception was made for her to pursue composition. Thomas studied with faculty members and composers Alan Stout and M. William Karlins.

After graduating from Northwestern, Thomas attended Yale University to pursue a master's degree in composition. While at Yale, she studied with Jacob Druckman. Thomas did not graduate from Yale, finishing her master's degree at the Royal Academy of Music in London. There, she studied with Paul Patterson, the Manson Chair of Composition Faculty. Seven years after graduating from the Royal Academy of Music in London, Thomas was elected one of its Associates (ARAM, honorary degree), and in 2004 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music . In 1998, she received the Distinguished Alumni Association Award from St. Paul's School. In 1999, she won the Award of Merit from the President of Northwestern University, and a year later received Northwestern's Alumnae Award.

Immediately after receiving her degree from the Royal Academy of Music, Thomas was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1989. At 23, she was the youngest woman recipient of the honor at the time.

In 1994, Thomas married the British composer Bernard Rands. In 1997, Russian-American cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and the Boston Symphony Orchestra premiered cello concerti by both Thomas and Rands in Boston Symphony Hall and at Carnegie Hall. Paul Griffiths wrote that Thomas “had led the way [for the performance], introducing [Rands] to Mr. Rostropovich. Then, when the Boston Symphony asked Mr. Rostropovich what he would like for his 70th birthday, he said he wanted a new concerto, and wanted it from Mr. Rands”.

Shortly after the completion of her Guggenheim Fellowship, Thomas began teaching at the Eastman School of Music. She received tenure there at age 33. While at Eastman, she was appointed Mead Composer in Residence at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra by conductors Pierre Boulez and Daniel Barenboim. She is the longest-serving Mead Composer in Residence, holding the position from 1997 to 2006. Her residency culminated in the 2007 premier of her work Astral Canticle, one of two finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in Music.

Shortly after receiving tenure at Eastman, Thomas returned to Chicago to teach at the Northwestern University School of Music until 2006.

In 2010, the University of Chicago announced that Thomas would be appointed University Professor of Composition in the Department of Music and the College. She is the 16th designated professor to be appointed by the University. In 2018, it was announced that Thomas had created the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition[15] (CCCC) at the University of Chicago. The CCCC includes the Grossman Ensemble, underwritten by the Sanford J. Grossman Charitable Trust, which was designed to extend the legacy of the Contemporary Chamber Players. Thomas said she “hoped to enrich the university's long and distinguished history in contemporary music” with the CCCC, which is in its third season.

In 2016, Thomas created and co-curated the Ear Taxi Festival,[16] which featured over 350 musicians, 88 composers, and 54 world premieres. The two-day festival took place in Chicago and was meant to celebrate the city's “vibrant and booming contemporary classical music scene”. The festival's success earned Thomas the title “Chicagoan of the Year” from Chicago magazine, and is set to return to the city in the future.

For the 2014–15 academic year, Thomas was a Phi Beta Kappa Scholar. She was MUSICALIVE Composer-in-Residence with the New Haven Symphony, a national residency program of The League of American Orchestras and Meet the Composer.

Thomas’s most recent works include an opera, Sweet Potato Kicks the Sun,[17] that premiered at the Santa Fe Opera in 2019. The opera is meant for audiences of all ages and stars professional beatboxer Nicole Paris. Thomas co-wrote the piece with Leslie Dunton-Downer, a longtime collaborator of hers and a published writer and librettist. There are plans for the opera to tour the United States in the near future.

Thomas's chamber opera LIGEIA, based on Poe's short story of the same title, received the International Orpheus Prize and was performed in Spoleto, Italy. Commissioned by Mstislav Rostropovich and Rencontres Musicales d'Evian, LIGEIA was premiered by Rostropovich at the 1994 Evian Festival. The American premiere took place at the Aspen Music Festival on July 27, 1995.

Thomas lives in Chicago with her husband, teaches at the University of Chicago, directs the Center for Contemporary Composition, and composes. Her additional titles include:

· Founder and Director of The Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition

· Vice President for Music, The American Academy of Arts and Letters

· Member of the Board of Directors of The Koussevitzky Foundation

· Member of the Board of Directors of The Aaron Copland Fund for Music[18]

· Member of the Board of Directors of the Alice M. Ditson Fund, Columbia University

· Member of the Conseil Musical de la Foundation Prince Pierre de Monaco[19]

· Member of the Board of Trustees, American Society for the Royal Academy of Music, London

· Member of the Eastman National Council

· Member of the advisory board of Third Coast Percussion

· Member of the advisory board of the Civitas Ensemble

· Member of the advisory board of the Picosa Ensemble

· Member of the International Contemporary Ensemble Board of Directors, 2007-2013

· Chair of the Board, American Music Center, 2005-2008

· Board member, American Music Center, 2000-2011

· Envisioned, created EAR TAXI FESTIVAL, October 5–10, 2016 in Chicago

· Elected to membership, The American Academy of Arts and Letters, 2009

· Elected to Membership, The American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2011

· Mead Composer-in-Residence, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, 1997-2006

· Curator and director of the Festival of Contemporary Music, Tanglewood Music Center, 2009

• She was nominated for the 36th annual Chicago Music Awards in 2017.[20]
• Her album Of Being is a Bird received BBC Music Magazine's Chamber Choice award in 2016.
• The Sovereign Prince of Monaco made Thomas a Chevalier of the Order of Cultural Merit in 2015.
• Thomas won Lancaster Symphony Orchestra's Composer Award for the 2015–16 season.
• Lincoln Academy of Illinois awarded Thomas the Order of Lincoln in 2014.
• Ceremonial, for orchestra, was chosen as a Recommended Work at the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers in 2001.
• In 2001, Thomas received an Academy Award in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
• Thomas won the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize in 2000.
• Chanticleer's album Colors of Love, featuring two works by Thomas, won a Grammy in 2000.

• Thomas’s percussion quartet Con Moto was premiered on October 16, 2020 by Third Coast Percussion at the time that Thomas was Distinguished Guest Composer at the annual Bowling Green New Music Festival.
• Thomas’s "Gwendolyn Brooks Settings" for Treble Chorus and Orchestra. Text by Gwendolyn Brooks received its world premiere on April 17, 2021 by Anima – Glen Ellyn Children’s Chorus and the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra, Stilian Kirov, conducting, Charles Sundquist, Chorus, Director.
• Thomas’s opera Sweet Potato Kicks the Sun (librettist: Leslie Dunton-Downer) premiered at the Santa Fe Opera, directed by John de los Santos and conducted by Carmen Flórez-Mansi, who also serves as Youth Chorus Director. It will soon begin touring the United States.
• Fanfare of Hope and Solidarity for orchestra premiered on May 22, 2020, by the Utah Symphony, Thierry Fischer, conducting. During a period of mandatory social distancing, each musician performed from their home and the performance was edited together and premiered on YouTube.
• The Indianapolis Symphony is to premier Sun Dance for orchestra, in memoriam Oliver Knussen, on October 2, 2020, Krzysztof Urbański, conducting
• The Auditions, a ballet for chamber orchestra commissioned and premiered by PEAK PERFORMANCES and Martha Graham Dance Company in 2019 with choreography by Troy Schumacher.
• The Des Moines Symphony commissioned and premiered Brio for orchestra in 2018.
• The Chicago Philharmonic Society and Eugene Symphony Association co-commissioned by premiered Sonorous Earth for percussion quartet and orchestra in 2017. Sonorous Earth is conceived as a cultural statement celebrating interdependence and commonality across all cultures and as a musical statement celebrating the beauty and diversity of expression of bell sounds.
• Jack Quartet and Third Coast Percussion premiered Selene, Moon Chariot and Rituals for percussion quartet and string quartet on March 5, 2015 as part of a “portrait concert” at Columbia University's Miller Theatre. It was co-commissioned by the Tanglewood Music Center in honor of its 75th Anniversary Season, Miller Theatre, and Third Coast Percussion.
• Helios Choros (Sun God Dancers), a triptych for orchestra (2006-2007). Helios Choros I was commissioned by the Dallas Symphony, is dedicated to Sir Andrew Davis, Victor Marshall, and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and was premiered on May 3, 2007, by the Dallas Symphony with Davis conducting. Helios Choros II was co-commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra and Boston Symphony Orchestra and premiered by the LSO on December 14, 2008, Daniel Harding conducting. Helios Choros III, commissioned by the Orchestra of Paris, is dedicated to Christoph Eschenbach and premiered on December 12, 2007, in Paris at a festival curated by Pierre Boulez at which his music and the music of other composers of his choice was featured.
• Jennifer Kelly's upcoming book In Her Own Words: Conversations with Composers in the United States (New Perspectives on Gender in Music)[21] features Thomas.

• Official Augusta Read Thomas website
• Augusta Read Thomas on the University of Chicago's website
• Augusta Read Thomas Nimbus Catalogue
• Interview with Augusta Read Thomas, December 3, 1993