Since the 1990s, composer Augusta Read Thomas has been a pivotal artist on Chicago's new music scene. She was the longest-tenured Mead Composer-in-Residence for the Chicago Symphony. Working there with music director Daniel Barenboim and principal guest conductor Pierre Boulez, Thomas wrote some of her more important orchestral works during this time, including 2005's Astral Canticle, for which she was a finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in Music. Early in her residency, Thomas helped establish the orchestra's MusicNOW contemporary music series. As a University Professor of Composition at the University of Chicago, she created the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition and the Ear Taxi Festival. Two of Thomas' works were included on the album Colors of Love by Chanticleer, which earned a Grammy Award.