Augusta Read Thomas: Sol

For some twenty-five years I’ve had the inestimable privilege of collaborating with Augusta Read Thomas and so it is with some authority that I claim she is a singular refutation of Newtonian physics: she creates energy. In countless workshops, recording sessions, performances, and masterclasses I’ve watched her elicit previously undiscovered timbral nuance, dynamic possibility, and personal virtuosity from players and composers alike. Hers is a creative energy so irrepressible that somewhere amidst the cascade of commissions, awards, and international flights to attend performances of her work she, to mention just two examples, launched Chicago’s largest-scale new music festival (Ear Taxi) as well as one of the country’s most prolific incubators of new work, The Grossman Ensemble. I’m happy to report that the performances captured within this tracklist provide significant evidence in substantiating this bold claim.