Augusta Read Thomas - Composer

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...a circle around the sun..., for piano trio (2000)PROGRAM NOTES AUDIO

Commissioned for the Amelia Trio by The Children's Memorial Foundation of Children's Hospital, Chicago, in honor of George D. Kennedy
Premiered by the Amelia Trio, at a private party in Folsom, California, 4 November 2001
Duration 4 minutes

Photo © copyright by Michael Lutch

among dawn flowers, for soprano and piano (2001)PROGRAM NOTES

Text by Basho
Commissioned by The Arts Association
Premiered by Barbara Ann Martin in Fredericia, Denmark, 13 January 2001
Duration 4 minutes

Around Midnight Variation, for solo piano (2001)

Commissioned, for E.Arciuli, from CCM Cincinnati
Premiered in Rome, 11 November 2002 (IUC, Aula Magna Università) by Emanuele Arciuli
Duration 1 minute

Ballade (subtitle: "Weaving Skyward"), for solo piano (2008)PROGRAM NOTES

First performance by Dharshini Tambiah, pianist, Carnegie Hall, New York, NY, 25 April 2009
Duration 9 minutes

Bells Ring Summer, for solo cello (2000)PROGRAM NOTESAUDIO

Commissioned by Joan and Irwin Jacobs for the La Jolla Chamber Music Society's SummerFest
Premiered by David Finckel
Duration 3 1/2 minutes

Bubble: Rainbow (spirit level), for soprano and ensemble (2003)PROGRAM NOTESAUDIO

soprano, flute, oboe, violin, cello, piano, percussionist (playing only vibraphone/motor off, 2 crotales/Eb and D, and 2 bongos)
Texts by Elizabeth Bishop and Emily Dickinson
World premiere by the Ensemble Sospeso, Rand Steiger, conductor, Lucy Shelton, soprano, on 9 January 2005
Duration 4 1/2 minutes

Cantos for Slava, for cello and piano (2007)PRESS & PROGRAM NOTES

In Celebration Mstislav Rostropovich
First performance by Matt Haimovitz, cello, and Geoffrey Burleson, piano, 21 September 2009 in Boston, MA
An alternate version exists for viola and piano
Duration 12 minutes

Cantos for Slava, for cello and piano (version 2: alternate movement order) (2007)PRESS & PROGRAM NOTES

In Celebration Mstislav Rostropovich
First performance by The Fischer Duo: Norman Fischer, cello and Jeanne Fischer, piano in Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood Music Center on 1 August 2009
An alternate version exists for viola and piano
Duration 12 minutes

Caprice, for solo violin (2005)PROGRAM NOTES

Premiere by Rachel Barton Pine, Supreme Court Concert, Washington, DC, 18 May 2005
Duration 5 minutes

Capricious Angels, for eight players (2009)PROGRAM NOTES

flute, oboe, clarinet, horn**, 3 violins, and 1 viola
First Performance by the Music from Angel Fire Festival Ensemble; Anglefire, New Mexico, 6 September 2009
Duration 11 minutes
**Note: It is optional to substitute the horn with either a bassoon or a cello. An extra bassoon/cello partition comes with the set of parts should you choose to make this substitution.

Carillon Sky, for solo violin and small ensemble (2005)PRESS & PROGRAM NOTESAUDIO

solo violin, 1(dbl.Pic).1.1.0/0.1.1.0/2 perc/Pno/hp/4 strings 11110 or 11020
Premiere by MusicNow Ensemble, Chicago Symphony, Oliver Knussen conducting, 3 April 2006
Duration 8 minutes

Carillon Sky, for solo alto saxophone and small ensemble (arranged in 2009)PRESS & PROGRAM NOTES

solo saxophone, 1(dbl.Pic).1.1.0/0.1.1.0/2 perc/pno/hp/4 strings 11110 or 11020
Duration 8 minutes

Chant, for cello and piano (1991; revised 2002)PROGRAM NOTESAUDIO

Premiered by the Fischer Duo (Norman Fischer, cello; Jeanne Kierman, piano) at Rice University, Houston, Texas, 21 January 1992
Revised version premiered by Kate Dillingham, cello, and Blair McMillen, piano, at Merkin Hall, New York, New York, 16 April 2002
Duration 10 minutes

Dancing Helix Rituals, for violin, clarinet, and piano (2007)PRESS & PROGRAM NOTES

Premiered by The Verdehr Trio, Washington, DC, 21 October 2007
Duration 9 minutes

D(i)agon(als), for solo clarinet (2005)PROGRAM NOTES

Premiered by J. Lawrie Bloom, Chicago, IL, 5 May 2005
Duration 5 minutes

Eagle at Sunrise, for string quartet (2001)PROGRAM NOTES

Commissioned by The Koussivetzky Foundation
Premiered by The Ying Quartet in Winter, 2002
May also be performed as part of the grouping Sun Threads
Duration 7-8 minutes

Eurythmy Etudes, for solo piano (2007)

#1: Still Life
#2: Motion Detector

Commissioned by the Alanus Hochschule für Kunst und Gesellschaft, Fachgebiet Eurythmie and was presented with eurythmy (dancers) at the world premiere on March 7, 2008 at Alanus Hochschule, Fachgebiet Eurythmie in Alfter bei Bonn, Germany
US premiere by Mabel Kwan, at ISU-Bloomington, Normal, Illinois, March 23, 2009
Duration 6 1/2 minutes

With Claire Chase, Flutist and Executive Director,
International Contemporary Ensemble, at the
American Music Center Members Meeting.
Euterpe's Caprice, a two-minute fanfare for solo flute (2008)PROGRAM NOTES

This tiny work was made as a holiday gift for flutist Claire Chase.
First performance: Katherine Borst Jones, flute, at the 2010 Festival of New Music, Ohio State University, 9 April 2010.
Duration 2 minutes

Final Soliloquy of the Interior Paramour, for small ensemble and mezzo-soprano and counter-tenor (2004)PROGRAM NOTES See also Works for Chorus

Text by Wallace Stevens (NOTE: A small amount of humming and vocalizing is required from 50% of the players. These vocal parts require only an amateur level voice and singing skills.)
Commissioned by the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at Brigham Young University
Premiered by Alarm Will Sound at Columbia University, 7 April 2005
Duration 8 minutes

Fugitive Star, for string quartet (1999-2000)PROGRAM NOTES

Commissioned by The Caramoor Music Festival
Premiered by The Avalon Quartet in July, 2000
May also be performed as part of the grouping Sun Threads
Duration 9 minutes

Incantation, for solo violin (1995) (also a version for solo viola)PROGRAM NOTESAUDIO

Commissioned and premiered by Catherine Tait in Rochester, NY in 1995
Viola version was premiered by Colin Belisle on 18 June 2006, at the New England Conservatory, Boston, MA
Duration 5 minutes

Invocations, for string quartet (2000)PRESS & PROGRAM NOTES

Commissioned by The Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival with funding from Chamber Music America
Premiered by The Miami Quartet, 19 March 2000
May also be performed as part of the grouping Sun Threads
Duration 9 minutes

Jeu D'Esprit, for two trumpets (2010)PRESS & PROGRAM NOTES

This work was composed as a gift at the request of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra for their spring 2010 gala
First performance by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, New York, NY, 15 April 2010
Duration 3 1/2 minutes

Love Twitters, for solo piano (2006)

First public performance by Nicola Melville at Carleton College, Minnesota, 28 September 2007
Duration 5 minutes

Memory: Swells, for guitar duo (2005)PROGRAM NOTES

Premiered by Laura Oltman and Michael Newman at the Raritan River Music Festival, Clinton, NJ, 28 May 2005
Duration 7 1/2 minutes

Moon Jig, for violin, cello, and piano (2005)PROGRAM NOTES

Premiered by The Lincoln Trio, Chicago, IL, 5 May 2005
Duration 5 minutes

Murmurs in the Mist of Memory, for 11 solo strings (2001)PROGRAM NOTESAUDIO

Commissioned by The International Sejong Soloists
Premiered by The ISS at the Aspen Music Festival, June 2001
Duration 10 minutes

Passion Prayers, for solo cello and 6 instruments (1999)PRESS & PROGRAM NOTES

cello, flute, clarinet, violin, piano, harp, percussion
Commissioned by The Network for New Music
Premiered by The Network for New Music, Jan Kryzwicki, conductor
Scott Kluksdahl, solo cellist, on 11 April 1999
Duration 9 minutes

Piano Etudes, for solo piano PROGRAM NOTESAUDIO

Etudes #1 and #2 (1996)

Commissioned and premiered by Judy Seibert, Brock University, St. Catherine's, Ontario, Canada, 20 March 1997
Duration 5 minutes

Etudes #3 and #4 (2003)

Commissioned by the American Pianists Association, through the Christel Award, for 1995 Classical Fellow James Giles
Premiered by James Giles, Indianapolis, Indiana, 20 April 2003; London's Wigmore Hall on 16 April; and Helsinki's Sibelius Academy on 19 April
Duration 6 minutes

Etudes #5 and #6 (2005)

Co-premiered by Amy Dissanayake on 3 March 2006, at Ganz Hall, Roosevelt University, Chicago, Illinois, and by Stephen Gosling on 23 March 2006 at Merkin Hall, New York, New York
Duration 5 minutes

Prairie Sketches I: Diamonds on Orchid Velvet, for soprano and ensemble (2004)PRESS & PROGRAM NOTESAUDIO

solo soprano (light lyric, slightly coloratura) fl, ob, cl, hp, vl, vc, 1 perc., 3 famale voices or a small children's chorus
Premiered by the Callisto Ensemble, Cliff Colnot, conductor, Tony Arnold, soprano, on 9 January 2005
Poem by Suzann Zimmerman
Duration 15 minutes

Prayer and Celebration (2006)PROGRAM NOTESAUDIO See also Orchestral Works

First performance by Saint Paul's High School, David Seaton, conductor, Concord, New Hampshire, 1 June 2007
1111/0000/strings
Duration 4 minutes

Pulsar, for solo violin (2003)PROGRAM NOTESAUDIO

Commissioned by the BBC jointly with the Royal Philharmonic Society
Premiered by Ilya Gringolts on 17 March 2003 at Wigmore Hall, London
American premiere by Movses Pogossian on 10 February 2004, Buffalo, NY
Viola verson was premiered by Carol Rodland, 15 June 2006, Jordan Hall, Boston, MA
Duration 6 minutes

Rise Chanting for string quartet (2002)PRESS & PROGRAM NOTES

Premiered by the Alexander String Quartet at the Krannert Center, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, 18 April 2002
May also be performed as part of the grouping Sun Threads
Duration 13 minutes

Rumi Settings for violin and viola (2001)PROGRAM NOTESAUDIO

Commissioned by the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music
Premiered by Ani Kavafian, violin, and Ida Kavafian, viola, at the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music in Tucson, Arizona, 5 March 2002
Duration 9 minutes

Rush, for solo violin (2004)PROGRAM NOTES

Premiere by Rachel Barton Pine on the Saint Paul Sunday Radio Show, 17 April 2005
Duration 2 minutes

Scat (2007)PRESS

For flute (or oboe), violin, viola, cello, piano (or harpsichord)
First performance by the Walden Chamber Players, Northampton, MA, 9 November 2007
Duration 9 minutes

Scherzi Musicali (2007)PROGRAM NOTES

For 2 trumpets in C, horn, trombone
Commissioned by Gail Williams
First performance by Charles Geyer, Barbara Butler, Michael Mulcahy, and Gail Williams on the Chicago Chamber Musicians series, Chicago, IL, 21 October 2007
Duration 3 minutes and 30 seconds

Silent Moon, for violin and viola (2006)PROGRAM NOTES

For violin and viola (or violin and cello)
Commissioned and to be premiered by Almita and Roland Vamos, Chicago, IL, 2006
Duration 8 minutes

...The Soul is Light... for oboe (or flute), violin and harp (2006)

First performance at the Steiner Archive at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland, November 28, 2006
American Premiere was by the New World Symphony, Marguerite Lynn Williams, harp; Katie Young, oboe; Katherine Bormann, violin, at the Lincoln Theatre, Miami Beach, FL, on Friday, January 26, 2007
Duration 8 minutes

Spring Song for solo cello (1995)PROGRAM NOTES

Commissioned, premiered and recorded by Scott Kluksdahl
Duration 5 minutes

Sun Songs — Three Micro-Operas (2004)PROGRAM NOTES

For solo mezzo soprano and three percussion (May also be sung by a soprano or a countertenor)
(The singer should have an excellent sense of theater and drama and dynamic acting skills.)
Texts by Emily Dickinson
First performance by The Percussion Plus Project, Chicago, Illinois, 26 February 2006
Duration 8 minutes

Sun Threads for string quartet (1999-2002)PROGRAM NOTES

Grouping of four string quartets:

Eagle at Sunrise
Invocations
Fugitive Star
Rise Chanting

Duration 39 minutes

Toft Serenade, for violin and piano (2006) (also a version for viola and piano)PROGRAM NOTES

Commissioned by Christopher and Douglas Toft for their parents, Richard and Marietta, in honor of their respective 70th and 65th birthdays
Premiered by Rachel Barton Pine, violin; Matthew Hagle, piano; Chicago, IL, 28 October 2006
Duration 6 minutes

Traces, for solo piano (2005)PRESS & PROGRAM NOTES AUDIO

Commissioned by the Montalvo Festival for Lang Lang and dedicated to Amy Briggs
Premiered on the Evolution Contemporary Music Series (at An Die Musik)
Duration 16 minutes

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