The Miller Theatre Continues 2014-15 Composer Portraits Series with AUGUSTA READ THOMAS Tonight

Miller Theatre at Columbia University School of the Arts continues its 2014-15 Composer Portraits series with AUGUSTA READ THOMAS featuring the JACK Quartet and Third Coast Percussion. Tonight, March 5, 2015, 8:00 p.m. at the Miller Theatre at Columbia University (2960 Broadway at 116th Street)

Tickets: $25-$35 • Students with valid ID: $15-$21

COMPOSER PORTRAITS

"Miller Theater's invaluable marquee series of deep dives,
a single living composer at a time." - The New York Times

One of New York City's "strongest new-music series" (The New Yorker),Composer Portraits at Miller Theatre allow audiences to become immersed in one composer's singular style, as well as hear from them in-person during an onstage discussion. The 2014-15 season includes a wealth of world premieres and performances from cutting-edge artists such as the JACK Quartet, ICE, Third Coast Percussion, the Brentano String Quartet, and countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo.

Composer Portraits

Thursday, March 5, 2015, 8:00 p.m.
Augusta Read Thomas

Miller Theatre (2960 Broadway at 116th Street)
Augusta Read Thomas wowed audiences and critics at her first Miller Portrait a decade ago, and she remains among the most prominent composers of her generation. Now she returns with a program including Resounding Earth, a percussion tour-de-force that brings together bells from around the world to create a "transfixing shimmer" (The New York Times). Another highlight is the world premiere of an octet composed especially for the occasion.

PROGRAM:
Selene for percussion quartet and string quartet (2014-15)
world premiere, Miller Theatre co-commission
Capricci for violin and viola (2014)
world premiere
Resounding Earth (2012)
New York premiere
"Invocations" from Sun Threads for string quartet (1999-2002)

ARTISTS:
Augusta Read Thomas, composer
Third Coast Percussion
JACK Quartet

Selene was co-commissioned
by the Tanglewood Music Center in honor of its 75th Anniversary Season,
with generous support from Deborah and Philip Edmundson;
by Miller Theatre at Columbia University;
and by Third Coast Percussion with the generous support of Sidney K. Robinson.

Major support for Composer Portraits is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts.

WATCH: Documentary on Resounding Earth by Augusta Read Thomas

Augusta Read Thomas

www.augustareadthomas.com

Augusta Read Thomas was born in 1964 in Glen Cove, New York and was the Mead Composer-in-Residence for Pierre Boulez and Daniel Barenboim at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1997 through 2006. In 2007, her Astral Canticle was one of the two finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in Music. The Colors of Love CD by Chanticleer, which features two of Thomas' compositions, won a Grammy award.

Thomas is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters; the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; the Advisory Committee of the Alice M. Ditson Fund at Columbia University; the Board of Trustees of the American Society for the Royal Academy of Music; the Eastman School of Music's National Council; as well as boards and advisory boards of several chamber music groups including the ICE Ensemble. She has been on the Board of Directors of the American Music Center since 2000 and was elected Chair of the Board of the American Music Center, a volunteer position that ran from 2005 to 2008. Thomas was awarded fellowships from the Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College, and was a fellow for three years in the exclusive Harvard University Society of Fellows, among many other world renowned awards.

Seven years after graduating from the Royal Academy of Music in London, Thomas was elected as Associate (ARAM, honorary degree), and in 2004 was elected a Fellow (the highest honor they bestow) of the Royal Academy of Music (FRAM, honorary degree). In 1998, she received the Distinguished Alumni Association Award from St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire. In 1999, she won the Award of Merit from the President of Northwestern University, and a year later received The Alumnae Award from Northwestern University. Sigma Alpha Iota Music Fraternity initiated her as an Honorary Member in 1996.

Third Coast Percussion

www.thirdcoastpercussion.com

Hailed by The New Yorker as "vibrant" and "superb," Third Coast Percussion explores and expands the extraordinary sonic possibilities of the percussion repertoire, delivering exciting performances for audiences of all kinds. Since its formation in 2005, Third Coast Percussion has gained national attention with concerts and recordings that meld the energy of rock music with the precision and nuance of classical chamber works.

These "hard-grooving" musicians (The New York Times) have become known for ground-breaking collaborations across a wide range of disciplines, including concerts and residency projects with engineers at the University of Notre Dame, architects at the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, astronomers at the Adler Planetarium, and more. The ensemble enhances the performances it offers with cutting edge new media, including free iPhone and iPad apps that allow audience members to create their own musical performances and take a deeper look at the music performed by Third Coast Percussion.

Third Coast Percussion is the Ensemble-in-Residence at the University of Notre Dame's DeBartolo Performing Arts Center. They have the honor of being the first ensemble at the University of Notre Dame to create a permanent and progressive ensemble residency program at the center. The ensemble performs multiple recitals annually as part of the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center's Presenting Series season. Third Coast Percussion assumed the position of Ensemble-in-Residence at Notre Dame in 2013.

Visit iTunes to see Third Coast Percussion's Resounding Earth app.

JACK Quartet

www.jackquartet.com

The JACK Quartet electrifies audiences worldwide with "explosive virtuosity" (Boston Globe) and "viscerally exciting performances" (The New York Times). The recipient of Lincoln Center's Martin E. Segal Award, New Music USA's Trailblazer Award, and the CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, JACK has performed to critical acclaim at venues such as Carnegie Hall (USA), Lincoln Center (USA), Wigmore Hall (United Kingdom), Suntory Hall (Japan), Salle Pleyel (France), La Biennale di Venezia (Italy), the Lucerne Festival (Switzerland), Bali Arts Festival (Indonesia), and the Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik (Germany).

Comprising violinists Christopher Otto and Ari Streisfeld, violist John Pickford Richards, and cellist Kevin McFarland, JACK is focused on the commissioning and performance of new works, leading them to work closely with composers John Luther Adams, Derek Bermel, Chaya Czernowin, James Dillon, Brian Ferneyhough, Beat Furrer, Georg Friedrich Haas, Vijay Iyer, György Kurtág, Helmut Lachenmann, Steve Mackey, Matthias Pintscher, Steve Reich, Roger Reynolds, Wolfgang Rihm, Salvatore Sciarrino, and John Zorn. Upcoming and recent premieres include works by Wolfgang von Schweinitz, Toby Twining, Georg Friedrich Haas, Simon Holt, Kevin Ernste, and Simon Bainbridge.

The quartet has led workshops with young performers and composers at institutions including Princeton University, Yale University, Columbia University, the Eastman School of Music, Oberlin Conservatory, Manhattan School of Music, and at the Darmstadt Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik.

The members of the quartet met while attending the Eastman School of Music and studied closely with the Arditti Quartet, Kronos Quartet, Muir String Quartet, and members of the Ensemble Intercontemporain.

Photo Courtesy of the Miller Theatre

Photo Credit: Peter James Zielinski