Trailblazing US composer, 82

From SAI Composers Bureau:

American composer Dr. Diane Thome passed away on January 13, 2025. She was 82.

Dr. Thome was the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in Composition from Princeton University, where she also received an MFA. She also held a Master of Arts in Theory and Composition from the University of Pennsylvania and two undergraduate degrees with distinction in piano and composition from the Eastman School of Music.

She was recipient of a number of honors and awards, including Washington Composer of the Year (1994), Solomon Katz Distinguished Professor in the Humanities (1995–1996), and an International Computer Music Conference Commission (1998). She composed a wide array of solo, chamber, choral, and orchestral works, and was the first woman to write computer-synthesized music. Some of her works include Night Passage, an environmental theatre piece; Angels, a virtual reality artwork for computer; and Unseen Buds, for mixed choir and computer-realized sound.

Dr. Thome was a professor at the University of Washington and then chair of its Composition Program at the School of Music. She was composer-in-residence at a number of institutions, including the University of Sussex (England), Bennington College, and the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Thome was also a ComposerJudge for the SAI Inter-American Music Awards (IAMA) at the 1997 National Convention.

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