From the recording Threaded Sky
Grammy winner Augusta Read Thomas was born in New York. At age 23 she became the youngest woman recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship. Thomas has held Professorships at the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and Eastman University, and was appointed Composer in Residence at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chair of the Board of the American Music Center, and named one of two finalists for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her composition Astral Canticle. “... All art that I cherish has an element of love and recklessness and desperation. I like music that is alive and jumps off the page and out of the instrument as if something big is at stake.”
Rumi Settings was commissioned in 2001 by the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music and premiered by Ani Kavafian, violin, and Ida Kavafian, viola in 2002. The music was inspired by the 900 year old texts written by the Persian poet Rumi.
IV .
Stop the words now.
Open the window in the center of your chest, and let the spirits fly in and out.”