A bequest from composer and longtime former UW professor Diane Thome will provide enduring support for doctoral students at the University of Washington.
The professor emerita’s creation of two endowments—the Diane Thome Composition Fellowship in Music and the Diane Thome Composition Fellowship in DXARTS—will provide support for outstanding doctoral composition students at the UW for years to come.
“Diane Thome was a longtime beloved colleague, and we are delighted that her bequest to support composition students at the UW will honor her legacy as a composer and an educator,” says Joël-François Durand, composition professor and School of Music director.
Former chair of the composition program at the University, Thome served on the School of Music faculty from 1977 to 2006. She died in January 2025 in Seattle.
The first woman to earn a PhD in Computer Music at Princeton University, Thome composed electro-acoustic works that were recorded on labels such as CRI, Crystal Records, Capstone, Leonarda, and Centaur, as well as two monographic discs, Palaces of Memory and Bright Air/Brilliant Fire, both on Centaur Records. Her memoir, Palaces of Memory: American Composer Diane Thome on her Life and Music, was published by Friesen Press in 2016.
Honors for her work included Washington Composer of the Year (1994), the Solomon Katz Distinguished Professor in the Humanities (1995–1996), and an International Computer Music Conference Commission (1998).
Diane Thome obituary at the Violin Channel
Seattle Times obituary
School of Music obituary