Extremely Specific and Incredibly Clear

July 6, 2010 by Molly Sheridan

I got the chance to sit in a really nice chair and chat with Augusta Read Thomas at the American Academy of Arts and Letters recently. The conversation was anything but dusty. The edited transcript and video highlights are posted now on NewMusicBox.org.

Integrity. Soulfulness. Beauty. Proportion. Form. Elegance. Grace. Balance. Flexibility. Spontaneity.

When asked what defines her artistic journey, Augusta Read Thomas doesn’t hesitate even for a second. “Those are probably the ten words that leap to my mind about this 30 years of writing music so far,” she says.

Later, I go back and count them. Ten.

I have no idea how she did that, but after a few hours in her company chatting about her life and work and the inspiration that drives it all, this level of attention to detail and clarity of purpose are not surprising in the least. Descriptors like “extremely specific” and “incredibly nuanced” become touchstones as we talk. Like her music, Thomas speaks in clear, concise paragraphs that reveal her voracious appetite for sound, both consuming it and creating it. Perhaps most fascinating are the warring tensions inherent in her own work: she is prolific yet perfectionistic, a composer of carefully notated music but also one seeking the energy of spontaneous creation. Continue to the interview…

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Molly Sheridan

Molly Sheridan is a writer, editor, and producer specializing in classical and experimental music, with a focus on multimedia content designed for the web. A winner of ASCAP’s Deems Taylor Award for music journalism, she’s executive editor of NewMusicBox and CounterstreamRadio, both programs of New Music USA.

She hosted Carnegie Hall’s Sound Insights podcasts and online artist interviews and her writing has appeared in publications such as TimeOut, The Washington Post, and theÂ occasionalÂ concert program.Â She attended the Honors Tutorial College at Ohio University, earning a bachelor’s in journalism with a specialization in violin performance and French in 1999.

She currently divides her time between New York City and Baltimore, where she lives with her husband, the saxophonist Brian Sacawa, and cooks for Wonderland Kitchen.