Janet Owen Thomas

For the Australian mathematician and educator, see Janet Thomas. Janet Owen Thomas (29 January 1961 – 5 June 2002) was a British composer and organist. Early life and education Owen Thomas was born on Merseyside to parents of Welsh and German heritage. and the composer Robert Saxton. She received a scholarship to travel to Hamburg, where she briefly studied with composer György Ligeti, whose organ music she later wrote an article about. The period in Hamburg led to Owen Thomas being commissioned by to write the solo organ piece Rosaces (1984), which was subsequently widely performed and published by Novello. It was during this time that she wrote a music theatre piece, The Condom Tester’s Lament, for speaker and electronics. She went on to take advanced composition studies with Anthony Gilbert at the Royal Northern College of Music. In 1991, the BBC Proms presented the UK premiere of Rosaces. Owen Thomas was the youngest composer whose music was featured in that year’s festival, and the work went on to be played in over a dozen countries. Style In her obituary for Owen Thomas, fellow composer Nicola LeFanu described the former’s musical style as follows: The hallmark of her style i