Palaces of Memory

Palaces of Memory is the story of a pioneer in the music world – the first woman to graduate from Princeton University with a PhD in Music and the first woman to compose computer-synthesized music. Much has been written about Dr. Thome, now professor emerita and former chair of the composition program at the University of Washington School of Music. But this is Diane Thome’s highly personal story about her lifelong journey in music. 

In this inspiring memoir, Dr. Thome describes her studies with many famous teachers including Dorothy Taubman, Robert Strassburg, Milton Babbitt, Roy Harris and Darius Milhaud. She writes of a consuming need to compose and explore new directions in her music. She also writes with deep affection and candor about her many friends and great loves. 

Diane Thome’s music has been described as “high modernist … searching, intense, and full of integrity.” Much the same can be said of her life as it unfolds in Palaces of Memory.