About
‘reaching an inexpressible purity’ (Le Monde)
‘dreamy post-rock’ (The New York Times)
‘never-ending, sugar-sweet’ (Neue Zürcher Zeitung)
‘hauntingly beautiful’ (The Sydney Morning Herald)
‘The work of Thomas Meadowcroft crosses worlds, embracing notated compositions for orchestras, acoustic instruments and electronics, and music for radio and theater. His music’s surface beauty is ambiguous, even ambivalent. Its ideas are provocative, but the music can be laugh-out-loud funny. It tells stories that are personal, but these stories are distanced — meaning can be made only by the listener. And, at times we just simply drift, unmoored, his slowly changing harmonies living in the fuzzy middle between tension and resolution. Perhaps we might give up some measure of control, some of our insistence on “where is this going?” This music isn’t in a hurry, so perhaps we shouldn’t be either.’
Tim Munro — Chicago, April 2022
BIOGRAPHY:
Thomas Meadowcroft composes music for the concert hall, theater and radio. He has worked with a variety of orchestras and ensembles, including: Basel Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, ensemble recherche, the German Film Orchestra Babelsberg, Les Percussion de Strasbourg, Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop, Mädchenchor der Sing-Akademie zu Berlin, members of the Los Angeles Philarmonic Orchestra, members of the South West German Radio Big Band and Symphony Orchestra. In particular, he shares long standing collaborations with Australia’s ‘Speak Percussion’, and the New York ensemble ‘Yarn/Wire’. Thomas’ chamber music has been presented at various international festivals and concert series including Miller Theater and Chamber Music Society of the Lincoln Center (NYC), Lucerne Festival, Maerzmusik (Berlin), and Monday Evening Concerts (Los Angeles).
In 2023, he arranged the music of Herbert Grönemeyer for orchestra, as part of the Theater Basel and Komische Oper Berlin co-production of Pferd frisst Hut, directed by Herbert Fritsch. In 2015, he arranged the music of Dirk von Lowtzow for orchestra, as part of the Volksbühne Berlin production, Von einem der auszog, weil er sich die Miete nicht mehr leisten konnte, directed by René Pollesch.
Thomas has undertaken artist residencies at the Villa Aurora Los Angeles (courtesy of the German Foreign Office), Cité des arts Paris (courtesy of the Berlin Senate for Cultural Affairs), the Peggy Glanville-Hicks Composers’ House Sydney, and the Golden Vale residence (courtesy of the National Trust of Australia NSW, and the Bundanon Trust). With the assistance of a William Penn Fellowship, Thomas completed postgraduate studies in composition with George Crumb at the University of Pennsylvania, USA. Thomas’ music is released on Mode Records, New York. He has lived in Berlin since 1998.