Augusta Read Thomas

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.

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.

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.

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 earning a bachelor's degree from Northwestern, Thomas attended Yale University to pursue a master's degree in composition.

There she studied with Jacob Druckman.

Thomas did not complete a degree program at 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.

Thomas studied composition with Oliver Knussen at Tanglewood Music Center; Jacob Druckman at Yale University; Alan Stout and Bill Karlins at Northwestern University; and at the Royal Academy of Music in London (1989).

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.

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.

In 1994, Thomas married the British composer Bernard Rands.

Thomas was the longest-serving Mead Composer-in-Residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, for Daniel Barenboim and Pierre Boulez, from 1997 to 2006.

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.

She is the longest-serving Mead Composer in Residence, holding the position from 1997 to 2006.

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.

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.

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.

Thomas has won an Ernst von Siemens Composers' 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 is 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."

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, The Cathedral Choral Society of Washington, D.C., the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Tanglewood Music Festival, BBC Proms, Diotima Quartet and The Philharmonie of Paris, Sejong Soloists, the Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra, Des Moines Symphony, Boston Symphony, the Utah Symphony, Wigmore Hall 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, and the Fromm Foundation.

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 2008.

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 (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.