Америкалық композитор Августа Рид Томас туралы

American composer (born 1964)

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 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). 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 Orchestra, 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. 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.

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. 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. 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.

She was nominated for the 36th annual Chicago Music Awards in 2017. 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 an Ernst von Siemens Composers' Prize in 2000. Chanticleer's album Colors of Love, featuring two works by Thomas, won a Grammy in 2000.