Thomas L. Read

Thomas L. Read, composer and violinist, is Professor Emeritus at the University of Vermont. Born in Erie, Pennsylvania in 1938, he studied violin, composition and conducting at the Oberlin, Mozarteum, New England and Peabody Conservatories with such noted musicians as Andor Toth Sr., Richard Burgin, Bernhard Paumgartner, Leon Fleisher, and Benjamin Lees. As violinist he has been a member of the Erie Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony, Boston Festival Arts (under Harold Farberman), Vermont Symphony and the Saratoga Festival of Baroque Music. He joined the faculty of the University of Vermont in 1967, becoming Professor Emeritus in 2008. During his more than 40 years on the faculty he taught countless students, conducted and coached many concerts and musical theater productions, and led an innovative series of new music concerts and lectures (Symposium on Contemporary Music, held annually from 1968 until 1991). He continues to be active as a violin soloist and conductor as well as a composer.

He has written music for a variety of media and almost entirely on commission- music for small ensembles, full orchestra, solo voice, chorus and musical theater. He has been a recipient of several Vermont Arts Council and University Stipends, and has been awarded fellowships from organizations such as the McDowell Colony, the Charles Ives Institute, and the Johnson Composers Conference. Recent premieres include Piano Partita (nominated for Pulitzer prize in 2007), Night Pageantries for bassoon and piano, and Going On for clarinet, violin and piano (2008 Burlington VT), The Dancing Air (2008, Pittsburgh PA), Three Keyboard Interludes (2008 Harvard University), Third String Quartet (2008, Kiev, Ukraine), Octet for Strings (2009, Ann Arbor MI), Winter Fields, Woods and Air for mixed choir (2010) and What Story Awaits Its End? (2010). C.F.Peters, Tunbridge Music, Yelton Rhodes, and the American Composers Edition publish his work.