Augusta Read Thomas (born April 24, 1964) is an American composer and University Professor of Composition in the Department of Music at the University of Chicago, where she is also director of the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition.

Biography

Thomas studied composition with

Oliver Knussen Stuart Oliver Knussen (12 June 1952 – 8 July 2018) was a British composer of contemporary classical music and conductor. Among the most influential British composers of his generation, his relatively few compositions are "rooted in 20th-cen ...

at the

Tanglewood Music Center The Tanglewood Music Center is an annual summer music academy in Lenox, Massachusetts, United States, in which emerging professional musicians participate in performances, master classes and workshops. The center operates as a part of the Tanglew ...

; Jacob Druckman at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

; Alan Stout and Bill Karlins at

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

; and at the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is one of the oldest music schools in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the firs ...

in London. She was a Bunting Fellow at

Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that was founded in 1879. In 1999, it was fully incorporated into Harvard Colle ...

in 1990–91 and a Junior Fellow in the Society of Fellows at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

from 1991 to 1994. Thomas was the longest-serving Mead Composer-in-Residence with the

Chicago Symphony Orchestra The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) is an American symphony orchestra based in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by Theodore Thomas in 1891, the ensemble has been based in the Symphony Center since 1904 and plays a summer season at the Ravinia F ...

, from 1997 to 2006. This residency culminated in the premiere of ''Astral Canticle'' for solo flute, solo violin, and orchestra, a finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in Music. During her residency, Thomas premiered nine commissioned orchestral works and helped establish the MusicNOW series. A former chairperson of the American Music Center, she is on many boards and, according to Wise Music Classical, "has become one of the most recognizable and widely loved figures in American music." Commissions include those from the

Santa Fe Opera Santa Fe Opera (SFO) is an American opera company, located north of Santa Fe, New Mexico. After creating the ''Opera Association of New Mexico'' in 1956, its founding director, John Crosby (conductor), John Crosby, oversaw the building of the f ...

in collaboration with the

San Francisco Opera The San Francisco Opera (SFO) is an American opera company founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola (1881–1953) based in San Francisco, California. History Gaetano Merola (1923–1953) Merola's road to prominence in the Bay Area began in 1906 wh ...

and several other opera companies, PEAK Performances at

Montclair State University Montclair State University (MSU) is a public research university in Montclair, New Jersey, with parts of the campus extending into Clifton and into Little Falls. As of fall 2018, Montclair State was, by enrollment, the second largest public un ...

and the

Martha Graham Dance Company The Martha Graham Dance Company, founded by Martha Graham in 1926, is both the oldest dance company in the United States and the oldest integrated dance company. The company is critically acclaimed in the artistic world and has been recognized as " ...

, The Cathedral Choral Society of Washington, D.C., the

Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra (ISO) is a major American orchestra based in Indianapolis, Indiana. The largest performing arts organization in Indiana, the orchestra was founded in 1930 and is based at the Hilbert Circle Theatre in downtown ...

Tanglewood Music Festival The Tanglewood Music Festival is a music festival held every summer on the Tanglewood estate in Stockbridge and Lenox in the Berkshire Hills in western Massachusetts. The festival consists of a series of concerts, including symphonic music, c ...

, BBC Proms, Diotima Quartet and The Philharmonie of Paris, Sejong Soloists, the Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra, Des Moines Symphony, Boston Symphony,

Utah Symphony The Utah Symphony is an American orchestra based in Salt Lake City, Utah. The orchestra's principal venue is Abravanel Hall. In addition to its Salt Lake City subscription concerts, the orchestra travels around the Intermountain West serving ...

Wigmore Hall The Wigmore Hall is a concert hall at 36 Wigmore Street, in west London. It was designed by Thomas Edward Collcutt and opened in 1901 as the Bechstein Hall; it is considered to have particularly good building acoustics, acoustics. It specialis ...

in London, Indianapolis Symphonic Choir, JACK quartet, Third Coast Percussion, Spektral Quartet, Chicago Philharmonic, Eugene Symphony, the Danish Chamber Players, Notre Dame University,

Janet Sung Janet Sung is an American classical violinist. Born in New York City, she began studying the violin at age 7 and debuted at the age of nine with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. She then studied privately with Josef Gingold for ten years. She r ...

, and the Fromm Foundation.

Early life and education (1964–1989)

Thomas was born in 1964 in

Glen Cove, New York Glen Cove is a Political subdivisions of New York State#City, city in Nassau County, New York, Nassau County, on the North Shore (Long Island), North Shore of Long Island, New York (state), New York, United States. The city's population was 28,3 ...

. In 2004 she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music. Immediately after receiving her degree from the Royal Academy of Music, Thomas was awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

in 1989. At 23, she was the youngest woman recipient of the honor at the time.

Career

Shortly after completing her Guggenheim Fellowship, Thomas began teaching at the

Eastman School of Music The Eastman School of Music is the music school of the University of Rochester, a private research university in Rochester, New York, United States. Established in 1921 by celebrated industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman, it was the ...

. In 2010, the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

announced Thomas's appointment as University Professor of Composition in the Department of Music and the college. She is the 16th designated professor appointed by the university. In 2018, it was announced that Thomas had created the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition (CCCC) at the University of Chicago. In 2016, Thomas created and co-curated the Ear Taxi Festival, which included over 350 musicians, 88 composers, and 54 world premieres. The two-day festival took place in Chicago. The festival's success earned Thomas the title "Chicagoan of the Year" from ''Chicago'' magazine. Thomas's recent works include an opera, ''Sweet Potato Kicks the Sun'', that premiered at the

in 2019.

References

External links

*
Augusta Read Thomas on the University of Chicago's website

December 3, 1993 {{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Augusta Read 1964 births Living people 20th-century American classical composers 20th-century American women composers 21st-century American classical composers 21st-century American women composers Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music American composers American women classical composers Bienen School of Music alumni Composers for carillon Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Northwestern University alumni Northwestern University faculty People from Glen Cove, New York People from Lee, Massachusetts Pupils of Jacob Druckman Pupils of Lukas Foss St. Paul's School (New Hampshire) alumni University of Chicago faculty American women academics 21st-century American women Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters